






































»t*„, -c 

~ r 




It, y (, A 

"d> * 1 V 0 ’ 'O’ b ^ " 

^> • *'•"< 'c- •"■ 

'. i. .<$> J *&&,'*■ ■%. 

' o p 

2 • * 'V 



N C 


'%S J **"' ^ 8 

» V 


ty {. ££ K. i - ia ^ 

^ c \0 o ^ « 

~ v V o ^ ^ \ 

O ^ J 0 o * » I \ *■ ^ . ^ bj> ^ * 3 

* 4 -CX 



<* ° - 1 r - :, ' fy%° • >w; e u j>,;V 

- o ? r - aV * : * fn f ! i .X ' 

f V : ^: v ** % 'Mk&S / ^ # - 

, S' #,l VV^»V'**''y.- *b 

';1 * ^ o 0 v. s „/*>?*, -i ", 

b \ *tv v- o ,r; :; iMi - _v - b 


'^b o x 


[ . * A 

>* 


>* % b 


o 4 - v -i r* 

• ^ Nn* x r' , 

.0’ ***°* % Vo' 

,t v>b#7k '■ bv \V * 

>{ _ A\M/A o tp V - 

4 z > z 

° V* ° %< 'i 

* .** *, V'£ 

<0 * 0 * y. .< 

- 11 '* ■•%. **> c 



'» \ 


rv -* 
.£> * 


! i V) b b \ 

» A * 


0 > „ V * 0 ., 

A ^ ^ y C*‘ 

% / < 

^ ^ ^ 8<ss4bW// ' ^ 

' 21 


* ^ b N ^ 

< V- s © 


® \ ft* 

*> - ' 

* ^ ) /A 

> <0 J ~f~. 


* o N 0 Nt.' .„ 

.0^ ^ ^ * »/• *b 



•V 

& ' 




* * 


* C°* 7 ♦ . -O. 

+ --^SN\ * ^ 

^ JC\\'' jyyfa / 

-'■ <>» V 

* O 0 * ^ 

- oS - 7 ^ % 

. vf* ^ ' T 

*• 


y o * V * <\ 04 

-? ^ 4^ c 0 N <J « 

» ' A v ; 4 - 


'+«■ 


A A' ; 


* n * 

- lu.k % : x oc? 

%CI ' v\44> V *> *' , ^oy///! I w -v ., 

x . » — - r AjA 3- t, r) c , . A, : •;./ ' * o N 

s y <-£s ?• d Ci « *£> 

, ° <P \\> * 

\ ° ^ \V 

^ > Z 




*n^ A v . * * , <*> w o N 

r. > A> k 'CV V' s’ '* 

\A : /M/h,% A a * 

A % «fW.‘ ,^ v % '.SSI? - <£■%. ° 

oV ■#• -v^rsA * A ,» * •'. « 

y ^ ‘o.k* a „ i. / ', ;7\' J> ,. C '»•’■ a 

” '- *+. 0 **0^*%* 4 * 

■ y - A :sm&: A • : 

S' 






»>* v 

© O k 




>, 0o x. 

0 Ay ^ v * ” oA“ 

^ 81 , y s S * * ?- 

A V 




/. 


c> <£. o 
A Ar> .y 


&%, V „ . „ 

<y. r ^%k v \L V 

-O -V ^ ' C>~ <* 

c«" “♦/"o. ' **' .0^ ,v«\JAA 

, -w -*’ 



et~s / ^^M.v 

A, > 


* 0 

N 0 

^ > 


!fe^ 

( 

t 






v *■ 
V- Av ♦ 

** *<? ; 

<=> 

C/ >f* v> 

U 



y 


<■ cf- 




V 


■ft 



O ^ ; £ s ,0 X . v ■*■ r * 

*, fO- V * V ' 8 % ^0 a' 

° ^ ^ v^ N 


r V 

« o O' 


^ : 

■ ' ,N ° P> »■<*»/ '%*’" 4 A**'* 

' ^ '* ^ > 



^ .c, 

< 7‘ 


A . 






■/ % 

M ,. -V I ^ V\on^ ’*b°** S 

\° °x. '* 2 'ymw- A 

' 4 - ') o 

>> * m o ^ *n' * \v 

•V s "'<?' vV ^ 

^\; ( • '' o ^\V 


A A 


















LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


















































THE CAMP OF THE DOZEN 



THE 

LAKERIM ATHLETIC 
CLUB 


BY 

RUPERT HUGHES 

H 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY C. M. RELYEA 



NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 
1898 


I 


Copyright, 1897, 1898, by 
The Century Co. 


SEP 241808 

of 

T^O COPIES RECEIVED. 

5~~(S % <6^ 

dXuA o 

The Device Press. 


9=5 


1*t cop 

1890 . 


TO MY BONNY 


/IDotber 

WHOSE DEVOTION HAS SAVED MY LIFE 

many’s the time; 

WHOSE COMRADERY MADE MY BOYHOOD 
ONE GOLDEN MEMORY 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Camp op the Dozen Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The Dozen 5 

Diagram of the Field and the Positions of the Dozen 11 
Lakerim Slips through the Cadet Interference and 
Tackles Low and Hard, Rarely Losing a Man or an 

Inch 21 

Jumbo Making the Goal 45 

He Went Skating Backward, Dragging the Heavy Girl 

after Him 49 

Reddy’s Forces Making an Attack upon the Fort Com- 
manded by Heady 65 

Reddy’s War-Map 75 

Reddy and Heady at the Edge of the Cliff 81 

Bobbles Leaves the Conspirators Behind 99 

The Gale Threatened Every Moment to Take the Mast 

Right out of Her 107 

A Critical Moment for the Lakerim Bicycle-Poloists ... 123 
The Fellow Leaped up from a Fence-Corner to Head 

Him Off 133 

Two-Mile Bicycle Race — Putting the Shot — One-Mile 

Run 147 

One Hundred and Twenty Yard Hurdle 155 

vii 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


viii 

PAGE 

Running High Jump — Pole Vault — One Hundred Yard 

Dash 159 

He Dropped Quickly Forward, with One Hand on the 

Back of Each of the Horses 167 

There was Nothing to Do but Give a Backward Leap 

after it 185 

The Boat Race 201 

The Canoe Race 225 

Pretty Wins the Game of Tennis against Hall 243 

History Challenges Campbell 267 

Plan of the Lakerim Athletic Club Grounds 278 

The Club-House in all its Beauty 283 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC 

CLUB 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC 
CLUB 


i 

T WELVE of the boyishest boys that ever ornamented 
a dog’s tail with a tin can sprawled under a tree on 
the edge of a lake, and sulked. 

Finally, one of them whined peevishly : 

“ Well, fellows, we might as well go and jump in the 
lake.” 

“ And say, 1 Here goes nothin’ ! ’ ” groaned another. 
Now, when one boy is gathered together you expect 
just so much trouble— so many panes of glass to be re- 
placed, so many neighbors to patch up peace with. When 
you see twelve boys’ heads together you feel like calling 
out the fire department and the militia. 

But here are twelve of the most harmless-looking young 
gentlemen outside of a waxworks show. What can have 
punctured the tire of the round world for them 1 Listen. 

“ To think that those all-fired Greenville cadets should 
simply beat the life out of us like that ! ” 
i l 


2 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“Say, were we trying to play foot-ball— or marbles?” 

“We could n’t beat the Greenville School for Girls, to 
say nothing of their Military Academy ! ” 

So they played tennis with the blues, till one boy spoke 
up and changed the game. They called him “ Tug.” And 
Tug said : 

“ You fellows talk like a lot of cry-babies. Just because 
you got licked once, do you think the world ’s coming to 
an end ? Brace up ! ” 

“ It ’s all very well for you to talk, Tug, but you did n’t 
play against those blamed Greenvillains. You were in 
luck to get a sprained ankle just before the game, I can 
tell you. They gave me worse than that before I got 
through ! ” yowled one who looked like a leopard when he 
went swimming, he had so many black-and-blue spots on 
him. But Tug persisted : 

“You fellows deserved to get whipped.” 

“ Why ? ” they all yelled, sitting up in anger and surprise. 

“ Because you did n’t practise. You ’ve got as good 
stuff in you as those cadets. But they spent their spare 
time working together, and every man watched his diet 
and made foot-ball his business. There was no fairy-story 
work about that game ; they went in to win, and they 
did it.” 

“ Oh, it ’s all very easy for you to sit up and talk ! ” said 
a lanky boy called “ Punk,” who had been captain of the 
defeated team ; “ but you ’d talk out of the other side of 
your mouth if you had had the running of the team.” 

“Is that so?” answered Tug. “Well, I ’ll just bet I 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


3 


could fix up an eleven here that would lick the boots off 
’em ! ” 

“ Well, why don’t you ? ” said the old captain, derisively. 

“ I ’m not the captain.” 

“ Well, you can have my job right now.” 

“I ’ll take it! — that is, no, of course I don’t want to 
shove myself in ! ” 

“ Go on ! You ’re all right ! Take a shy at it,” they 
all voted 5 and one cried: “ Hooray for the new cap- 
tain ! ” 

A still, small voice came from beneath a pug-nose bent 
under a pair of eye-glasses that gave him a wise look. 
It was from the bookworm of the crowd, and he said : 

“ That reminds me of what they used to say : 1 The King 
is dead ! Long live the King ! ’ ” 

“ Dry up, Hist’ry, and give Tug a chance.” 

“Well, fellows, it takes a lot of nerve to grab Punk’s 
place away from him like this.” 

“You ’re quite welcome, I ’m sure; and I wish you 
luck,” said Punk, with a fairly good grace. 

“ Put her there, Punk ; you ’re a white man ! ” Tug had 
to exclaim; and the two captains shook hands, without 
any of that silly jealousy that often mars athletics. 

“When shall we begin practice? Monday? To- 
morrow ? ” 

“Now! ” cried Tug. “Every minute is a minute, and 
we ’ve got fifteen of ’em before supper-time ” ; and he leaped 
to his feet. “Hist’ry, you might be thinking up a good 
challenge to send them. We lost the game on our home 


4 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


grounds} we Ve got to win it on theirs. Come ahead, 
boys ! ” 

Tug’s enthusiasm was as contagious as the mumps. In 
a moment he had his ten followers trailing out after him 
for a long run at a carefully regulated pace that began 
very slow, worked up to a good quick trot and a short 
spurt, and slowed down again to a jog. 

An odd-looking dozen they make — an odds-and-ends 
dozen, you might say, except that, next to bullying your 
smallers and putting tacks on bicycle-paths, punning is 
the worst habit you can get into. 

I won’t give you the whole history of each of these fel- 
lows now— or ever; but some sort of a catalogue will be 
handy, if you are going far in their company. 

I believe their fathers and mothers nicknamed them 
“ Robert Williams” and “ Clement Robinson” and “ Thorn- 
dyke Pendleton ” and such ridiculous things ; but their 
real names were, of course, just what their chums chose 
to call them. 

First came the new captain, Tug. His father, when he 
was angry, called him, “ You-Clement-Robinson-come- 
here ! ” Every pound of flesh on him had to turn into 
muscle or get off. He was not a witty boy. He took 
everything earnestly, seriously, and ambitiously, his les- 
sons as well as his games. He thought hard, and fought 
hard, and wrought hard. Such as he are the salt of the 
earth ; not the sugar, nor the pepper, nor the spice, but 
the salt. He was a born captain of men. 

Close in the wake of him came Punk, the ex-captain, 



JUMBO, 


SAWED-OFF, 


PUNK 


TUG 


HIST’RY 


THE TWINS, 


QUIZ.’ 


PRETTY. 


“ BOBBLES.” 



THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 7 

known to his teachers as Richard Malcolm. He was a fine 
fellow to obey and execute orders, but no man to invent 
them or see them obeyed. He was in the right place now. 
After him lumbered a boy so very tall that they called 
him “ Sawed-Off”— his nickname was Thorndyke Pendle- 
ton. He managed not only to bruise Punk’s heels, but 
also to bark the shins of the boy behind. And this was 
his particular chum— so tiny a rat that they called him 
“Jumbo.” The girls called him Billee Douglas. This 
minnow and this whale were the best friends of all the 
Dozen.” 

After them came various boys of various sorts and 
sizes. One of them was dubbed “ B. J.,” because that 
stands for bridge-jumper, and he had once dived off a 
railroad trestle about ; steen feet high, and had come up 
unconscious, with mud oozing from his mouth and nose. 
They fished him out with a boat-hook, and his father, who 
was Henry Perkins, Sr., emptied him as if he were a 
hot- water bag, and afterward rolled him and kneaded him 
back to life and, let us hope, to more common sense. 

In his footprints jogged a brick-top named “Reddy,” 
and another one usually known as “ Reddy’s Brother,” but 
also named “Heady”— as like a pair of twins as ever 
puzzled strangers. In the family Bible they were written 
down, on the same day, as Ralph and Rolf Phillips. Then 
struggled along a lazy beggar named “ Sleepy,” sometimes 
called Charles Croft, by mistake j a living interrogation- 
point called “ Quiz ”— if you asked him he would say his 
real name was Clarence Randolph ; but don’t believe every- 


8 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


thing people tell you; a fellow named “ Bobbles,” alias 
Robert Williams; and one called “ Pretty” (pronounced 
“ Poorty ”)— he had once been christened Edward Parker, 
but he had lived it down. And the twelfth was “ Hist’ry.” 

In good season Tug brought them back to the tree, and 
all of them felt like dropping flat on the ground ; but the 
captain forbade such rashness. 

“It ’s against all the rules of training,” he said. “ If 
we had a nice gymnasium we could take a cold shower- 
bath or a plunge, and rub down well. But it ’s too late 
even to go swimming. We ’d better be pegging for 
home.” 

“Those blamed Greenville fellows have a gymnasium 
that is a beauty,” complained Bobbles. “How can we 
expect to win without any advantages f ” 

“ It is n’t so much advantages as grit that counts,” said 
Tug. “ If we 11 buckle to it we can — Here, you, Sleepy, 
get up from there ! We ’re going home now.” 

Sleepy had come in last of all, and had dropped to the 
ground like a bag of beans. 

“Aw, let a fellow alone,” he mumbled. “I ’ve got a 
right to rest, I guess.” 

“Well,” said Tug, bluntly, “you ’ve got a right to get 
off the team, too, I guess. If you are going to balk at 
the rules, and run a risk of catching cold and growing 
weaker instead of stronger after exercise, it ’s time we 
knew it. There are plenty of other fellows in the High 
School just aching for a chance to play in your place.” 

“ Who ’s balkin’ ? ” grumbled Sleepy, getting to his feet 
as quickly as if the grass had caught fire. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


9 


11 Come along, then, fellows, and History can read us his 
challenge as we go.” 

Then they set out at a brisk walk, all trying to read 
over History’s shoulder at the same time, and all getting 
in the way of all. 

This is what History read. (History’s school-books had 
“ Willis Campbell” written in them, though I can’t imagine 
why.) He knew many big words by name, but his spell- 
ing was a bit shaky. 

The Managers and Members of the 
Greenville Militery Academy 
Football Association. 

Gentlemen: 

Whereas your magnificent aggergation of phyzical and 
mental champeens have administered a crushing defeat to the 
Lakerims , we the undersigned respectably request the honor 
of an oportunity of retreaving our lost laurels — 

u What ’s 1 laurels ’ ? ” said Quiz, who was eternally ask- 
ing questions. 

“ Why, laurels,” said History, “ are things the Greeks 
used to wear in their hair. They grow on a tree, and—” 

“ Go on with the letter ! ” said ten voices at once, and 
the explanation was postponed. 

—retreaving our lost laurels. We will play you on your 
own arena— or any place you may dessicate. We would 
respectably sudjest two (2) weeks from tomorrow ( Saturday ) as 
a suitable date. 

Yours very truely , 

The Lakerim High School Football Association. 


10 


THE LAKEEIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“ That ’s great ! ” said Sawed-Off, envying History his 
education. 

“ But you ’d better send a dictionary with it,” put in 
Jumbo. 

" I presume they will comprehend it,” answered History, 
scornfully. 

And it seems that they did comprehend it, for an ac- 
ceptance came promptly, proposing that three fourths of 
the gate-receipts should go to the winner and one fourth 
to the loser. This was satisfactory. 

The fateful Saturday saw the Lakerim team bundling 
into an omnibus bound for the neighboring town of 
Greenville. Everybody else that could get away from the 
village of Lakerim followed after, on bicycles and tan- 
dems, and in carriages, buckboards, wagons— almost 
everything but sleighs and flying-machines. The team 
was not sorry that most of the Lakerim beauties were in 
the crowd, and Pretty, who was a great ladies’ man, 
wanted to get out and ride in one of the carryalls ; but his 
jealous rivals held him back. When they arrived at 
Greenville, and saw the good, well-fenced athletic field, 
with the pretty grand stand, and the crowds of Greenville 
fathers and mothers and sweethearts covered with the 
Academy colors, Lakerim grew sick at heart, for our boys 
had no distinctive colors. They had neat uniforms, but 
these had no particular meaning. 

But Tug did n’t believe in coddling a useless regret, so 
he braced up, and said in a stout voice : 

“ Boys, we have n’t any colors of our own, but we ’ll 



18s f«t 



Coal 

v - 


PUnk 

O 


O 

r.B - 

Hist’ty 



Reddy's Brother Reddy 

O O 

R.H.8. 


Jumbo 

O 

Q.B 


8 *J. Tua 

Sloppy Sowed Ojf Gobble! 

Qulj 


0 

0 

O O 

0 

O 

O 

R..E R.T 

R.G C 

LG 

L.T 

LE 


9 *n 





CD 




O 

0 

u 0 

O 

O 

O 


O 


o o 


O 


160 feet 

Go al 


DIAGRAM OF THE FIELD AND THE POSITIONS OF THE DOZEN 



12 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


make those purple flags look sick before the game is over 
—or die trying, eh?” 

“ That ’s what ! ” the rest barked, taking on a new 
determination. 

Tug had had little time to train his team,— only the 
recesses of school-hours, the late afternoons, and Satur- 
days,— but he had done wonders with his materials, con- 
sidering the time he had. He had enjoyed the aid of no 
professional coaches, nor any aid at all, except a little 
advice from Mr. Bronson, one of the teachers of the High 
School, who had seen a few Yale games. Tug knew no- 
thing of the present condition of his rivals. He hoped 
that they had had their heads so turned by their easy 
victory before, that they had trained little. He hoped it, 
and he did n’t hope it, because he wanted a good hard 
battle, to make the victory worth while or soothe the sting 
of defeat. 

All that was in his power he had done. He had made 
his men work, and work with system. They had taken 
their exercise and their meals regularly, and had solemnly 
promised to eat no candies or pies, and to keep strictly in 
training. He had labored with his players, separately and 
in the mass, till he was sure they could work together like 
one man, and that every member of that one man would 
do the best in him— provided they did n’t all get rattled. 

But Tug had done such wonders for the team that when 
his men came out on the “ gridiron” they felt too great 
confidence in themselves, and almost believed that they 
could almost win by staring the other team out of coun- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


13 


tenance, as they say one can stare an angry bull into 
subjection by the power of his eye— though I advise you 
to practise it first through a telescope. 

After a little preliminary warming up, in which the men 
practised falling on the ball and passing it, and got the 
general lay of the land, time was called. The captains 
met, and tossed up a very important penny. Tug won, 
and chose the northern goal because the wind was in his 
favor. It might change before the second half, and be in 
his favor again. At any rate, Tug was always cautious, 
and believed that a wind in your favor is worth two in 
the almanac. 

How they lined up is shown by the diagram on page 11. 

The foot-ball was put in the exact center of the field, 
where it looked as interesting as if it were an egg the roc 
had laid there. The Lakerim line drew back ten yards, 
and waited. After a while of breathless pause, the Green- 
ville boys dashed forward. There was the sudden thump 
of the kick-off, and the ball went up in the air as if it slid 
on the grooves of a rainbow. It soared slowly up and 
came leisurely down. Beneath it was a pretty struggle. 
Tug’s men blocked the onset as well as could be expected ; 
but two or three hungry wolves got through the hedge, 
and came leaping toward Punk, who, as full-back, waited 
with open arms and mouth for the ball. It seemed that 
it never would come down j but at last it did. He made 
a clean catch of it, but preferred a run to a return 
kick. 

Hugging the ball to him as if it were a very precious 


14 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


and very breakable baby, be jumped away from the leap 
of the first cadet tackier, and dug out for the far-off goal. 
The second tackier he knocked aside with one quick, open- 
handed, straight-from-the-shoulder lunge. Then he was 
up with his own line, and here— thanks to Tug 7 s especial 
study of the art of protection, or “ interference, 77 as they 
call it oftener— he ran on unhindered by the Green villers, 
who were bunted and shunted off like waves from a sharp 
prow. But just as Punk was getting well past the center 
line and invading Greenville 7 s territory, Nesbitt, their cap- 
tain, darted around behind Punk 7 s body-guard, and came 
down on his back like a grizzly bear. Punk went to 
ground instanter; but he could hear the wild applause 
of the Lakerim faction of the spectators over his great 
run. 

There was a quick line-up. Sawed-Off snapped the ball 
back to Jumbo, and he shot it left to Reddy, who dashed 
toward the right end. All the Lakerims went the same 
way, and all the Greenvilles rushed over to stop the run. 
But as Reddy passed his brother he slipped the ball back 
to him ; and before the helpless cadets could stop them- 
selves, they saw Heady scooting unobstructed round the 
left end and far down the field. They had n 7 t expected 
the old “ criss-cross 77 so early in the game, and they were 
disgusted. 

The Greenville full-back was waiting for Heady, how- 
ever, and he wrapped his arms lovingly about him, as if 
he had come to stay. Heady was pulled down to his 
knees, but, like every wise player, he tugged and hunched 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


15 


forward for every precious inch he could make before he 
was held fast. 

On the next line-up the goal was only twelve yards 
away. The Greenvilles expected another end-run, and 
were not braced for the shock that split their line when 
the ball went back to the hands of Punk, who came plung- 
ing like a tomahawk straight through a suitable hole pre- 
pared by Sawed-Off and Bobbles, between the center and 
the right-guard of the enemy. 

There was no stopping him for eight yards, and, to the 
complete chagrin of all Green ville, the very same man went 
through the very same place the very same way for four 
yards more. When Punk picked himself up he was on 
the right side of the enemy’s goal-line. 

The Lakerimmers in the audience could hardly believe 
that their team had scored a touch-down so soon, and 
each one of them acted like a grasshopper on a griddle 
till Punk kicked a perfect goal. Then each one acted like 
two grasshoppers on a griddle. Score: Lakerims— 6; 
Greenvilles— 0. 

“ They ’re too easy,” said Punk. 

“ Wait,” said Tug. 

Nothing succeeds like success, they say ; but sometimes 
nothing is so demoralizing. The poor Lakerims were so 
overcome with the change in their condition, from defeated 
and despised villagers to irresistible victors, that they felt 
as if they were ready to meet the All- America team. 

But the blood of the amazed cadets was up now ; and 
when they had the kick-off again, Punk, who was a whit 


16 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


rattled at being suddenly bailed and hugged as a hero, 
made a fumbling catch, tried for a kick, and punted a 
sickly one that went up almost straight and came down 
in his own territory. 

The man that caught it was downed by Tug at once j but 
the first plunge of the Greenvilles bowled Sawed-Off over 
like a king-pin, and went through the Lakerim line like 
an elephant for fifteen yards. It might have been going 
yet, had not Tug thrown himself flat on his back and 
helped to pull the whole pile down on himself like a house 
of cards— though it felt like almost anything else. 

When the Lakerims picked themselves piecemeal out 
of the scrambled legs, they were as much confused as if 
they had got the wrong pieces. The next time Greenville 
bucked the line, they went over like straw men. The third 
time, they simply hung on the cadet rushers as if they were 
a big turtle, and rode ! — rode under their own goal-posts, 
too, and later saw the ball nicely kicked through for a goal. 
Score: Greenville— 6 ; Lakerim— 6 . 

The next kick-off fell to Tug’s men, and it was a miser- 
able fluke. It went barely the necessary ten yards, and 
fell into the clutch of a cadet who took it on the run and 
forgot how to stop till he reached Tug’s 25-yard line. 
Here one of the Greenville half-backs returned the compli- 
ment of the criss-cross, while the Lakerims looked over 
their left shoulders like helpless dolts and watched Punk 
slam him to the ground on the 10-yard line. They lined 
up again 5 just as a formality, it seemed, for they were 
too polite— or something— to prevent a cadet from cutting 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


17 


through between Sleepy and Sawed-Off for six yards more. 
Here they managed to gain strength enough from despair 
to hold Greenville fast for three downs. But when they 
got the ball, Jumbo was so nervous that he threw it wildly 
to the all-too-zealous Reddy, who fumbled it and was 
swept off his feet before he could blurt out u Down ! ” and 
shoved back over his own goal-line for a safety. Score : 
Greenville — 8 5 Lakerim— 6 . 

It was a disconsolate lot of Lakerims that hobbled out 
now to the 25-yard line, and they got little encourage- 
ment from the kick-out, which went off on the bias and 
out of bounds to the left. It was brought back for an- 
other try. This time Punk punted it out of bounds to 
the right. This gave the ball to Greenville again at 
Lakerim’s 25-yard line. After a run past Pretty for eight 
yards, Tug thought he foresaw a try for a goal from the 
field, so he made a furious dash for his rival, Captain 
Nesbitt, who was coolly dropping the ball for his kick; 
but the cadet opposite Tug, a brawny left-tackle, struck 
him a blinding blow in the face and throttled him. Of 
course the umpire did not see this, and Tug simply swal- 
lowed the foul in patience. He was above retaliation, and, 
later, when Sleepy was about to complain of a foul blow 
given him, Tug silenced him with a blunt u Don’t be a cry- 
baby ! Take your punishment, and pay it back— after the 
game, if you want to. Don’t risk any foul plays. We 
can’t afford it.” 

Tug was too much dazed to watch Nesbitt’s drop-kick, 
but he knew from the wild derisive yells of the Greenville 


18 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


rooters— a suggestive word sometimes— that the cadets 
had scored again. 

“ Thirteen to six ! ” he groaned ; “ that 's an unlucky 
number— for us.” 

But he went doggedly to his place, muttered a few sharp 
words to his men, and saw with delight that the kick-off 
was a good long one. This time the cadet full-back an- 
swered with a long punt. Punk had passed from the 
stupor of triumph to the stupor of dismal failure, and he 
brought himself out of this now into a healthy state of 
cool resolve. He caught the cadet punt fairly, and sent 
it back with his compliments. The wind was in his favor 
and helped his inferior strength. But the Greenville man 
was determined to win the honors of the battle, and there 
ensued one of the prettiest sights imaginable : a duel be- 
tween two full-backs, the ball soaring in graceful curves 
to and fro like a carrier-pigeon, and the twenty anxious 
men darting here and there beneath. The Greenvilles' 
captain, seeing that he was rather losing than gaining 
advantage, ordered his full-back to bring up the ball on a 
run, and he came tearing in breathlessly. 

Just as Sawed-Off fell on him he passed the ball back 
to Nesbitt, and Nesbitt went down the field like a comet, 
with Lakerim men for a tail. Jumbo dashed across to 
head him off —the ant would waylay a camel ! He tripped 
and fell just before he reached his prey, but reached out 
and clutched Nesbitt's flying ankles and brought the proud 
captain down with a bloody nose. But the umpire called 
it a foul,— properly enough, since the tackle was below 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


19 


the knees,— and gave Greenville fifteen yards. This was 
a hard blow to Tug, but it was nothing to the blow he 
got when a Greenville “ revolving tandem” beat him to 
the ground and went through him and his men for a 
touch-down. The touch-down was far to the side, how- 
ever, and though Nesbitt made a noble effort, the wind 
carried the ball away from the posts, and he failed of 
goal. Score: Greenville— 17 ; Lakerim— 6. 

There followed some hard mass-plays on both sides, 
with little gain to either. And then time was up, for the 
faculties of the two schools wisely forbade the boys to 
play more than 25-minute halves. 

When the Lakerims gathered at their quarters they 
were a blue lot. They had no trainers to rub them down 
with alcohol and tone them up with advice. But Tug 
arose, and waving a towel instead of a manuscript, made 
the following oration : 

“ Men, we have n't done ourselves justice. We can take 
the starch out of these cadets if we try hard enough. 
But you— we— got the big head after that first touch-down 
and played like crazy men. Now, all you 've got to do is 
to be steady and cautious. Don't lose any good chances, 
but don't take any big risks. And two things we can do, 
and have got to do. We can hold that line if we do our 
best, and we can buck it if we do our best. Boys,— er— 
men,— we 've got to win this game, and we 're going to win 
it.” 

They cheered him gaily, and came back to the struggle, 
rested, refreshed, and heartened. 


20 THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 

This time the kick-off is Lakerim’s. The ball shoots like 
an arrow on a clean long arc. 

The Greenvilles are upset by their long lead, and do not 
expect the vim they find in the Lakerim dash. Their full- 
back is brought to earth, almost in his tracks, by Tug, 
who has slashed through interference like a sword. The 
cadets now try a run round the end, but their runner 
can go only sidewise and is soon pushed out of bounds. 
Second down — five yards to gain. A wedge fails to split 
Tug and B. J. Third down — five yards to gain. A line- 
up, a snap-back, a toss to the left half-back, Tug is boosted 
over the shoulders of the crouching left-tackle, and slaps 
the half-back to turf before he can move. 

Lakerim’s ball. “ 8-17-33-9 ! ” A wedge between 
Greenville’s left-guard and the left-tackle that had 
“ slugged ” Tug. No gain. Second down — five yards to 
gain. A different signal for the same wedge on Green- 
ville’s left-tackle and -guard. Third down — five yards to 
gain. Same wedge, same place. Through the exhausted 
Greenville men the plow makes a furrow of ten yards. 

Line-up again. Tug gives the old signal, “ 8-17-33-9.” 
It sounds familiar. Nesbitt cries, “ Brace that left-tackle ! ” 
but he did not catch a slight difference in Tug’s intona- 
tion, and has the pleasure of seeing Reddy going like a 
firebrand in a cyclone round the unguarded right end. 

He is stopped thirty yards from home. Tug sends 
another wedge into the exhausted left-tackle, and says, as 
they pick themselves up some yards farther down the 
field : 


LAKERIM SLIPS THllOUGH THE CADET INTERFERENCE AND TACKLES LOW AND HARD, RARELY 

LOSING A MAN OR AN INCH.” 










THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


23 


“You will throttle me, will you?” 

He goes on bucking the line — vainly sometimes, oftener 
with success— till his stout-hearted rams have butted their 
way across the line again, and seen another goal nicely 
kicked. Score: Greenville— 17 ; Lakerim— 12. 

This success is meat and drink to the Lakerim lads, 
and when they get the ball after the next kick-off they 
follow Tug into the line with resistless force, hurling their 
own bodies like sledge-hammers against their rivals till 
they have pounded them back again to their 25-yard line. 

The ball is lost at times, but not through fumbles $ and 
everywhere Greenville tests the line she finds a wall piled 
up suddenly there in waves of stone. Lakerim slips 
through the cadet interference and tackles low and hard, 
rarely losing a man or an inch. Lakerim’s own interfer- 
ence is as hard to pierce as a Greek phalanx. 

11 Now you ’re playing foot-ball,” says Tug. 

Once inside Greenville’s 25-yard line, Punk begs for a 
chance to try a goal from the field, but Tug refuses. 

“ If you should make it, we ’d only tie the score ; and 
the wind ’s against you. No, sir • we ’ve got ’em on the 
run, and I would n’t give ’em the ball for a thousand 
dollars ! ” 

There was a long, tough fight in front of that beautiful 
goal. Once or twice Tug’s men lost the ball on downs, 
but Greenville was afraid to give it up with a kick, and 
could not break the line 5 so the ball came back. Many, 
many were the bruises, and twice there was a pause for 
an injured player. Both times it was Tug, but he would 


24 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


not be dragged out of the game. He shook off his pain 
and daze, and always bucked the line ; till finally, like a 
tidal wave, his men broke over the Greenville reef into 
the lagoon beyond the goal. . Punk's toe was true again, 
and the score was : Lakerim — 18; Greenville 17. 

The Lakerims were, after all, only half-trained High 
School boys, and they could n't stand everything. So 
they let up a little, and, before long, realized that Green- 
ville was awake and desperate now, and that she was 
backing them toward their own goal, spasmodically but 
surely. In vain Tug coached and inspired his men. In 
vain they welled up against Greenville wedges. In vain 
they tried the Greenville line and the ends of the line. 
Tug felt that the timekeeper was his only salvation now, 
and hoped only to hold Greenville where she was. But 
back he was forced— back, always back, till finally the 
goal-posts were just over the heads of the twins. 

u Hold hard, boys ! We 've got to hold 'em,” he pleaded ; 
and he whispered to B. J., “ I 'm going through that line, 
or die ! ” 

First down— no gain. That 's good. Do it again. 
Second down— three yards gained. 

If they make that two yards now, Lakerim is done for. 

Nesbitt has his men well up. The ball is to go to the 
full-back for a last assault on the enemy's left; but just 
as the full-back catches the leathern prize, there is a rip 
and a swish and a swoop, and Tug is through the line and 
on him, the dumfounded cadet has fallen over backward 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


25 


and dropped the ball, Tug has shot past and scooped it 
up, and is off for the far-away, far-away goal ! He is all 
out of breath j but there is no one in front of him, and he 
gasps and runs like a hunted animal. There is a wild 
mob after him, and his heart acts as if it would bounce 
out of his mouth, and his parched lungs feel that all the 
air is withdrawn from the world ; but still he runs, and 
finally, when everything has grown dazzlingly, blindingly 
scarlet before him, he bumps into something hard, and 
knows it is a goal-post, and drops to the ground stunned, 
gasping, utterly beaten out. And he is crying a little, 
perhaps ; but heroes can afford to cry. 

Of course Punk could n’t miss the goal after that, and 
time was up that minute j so the score stood, 24 to 17. 

There is no use telling anything more about the blissful 
crowd that went back to Lakerim, the fireworks, and all 
that. 

When the team was riding home that night, in moon- 
light as pure as their own happiness, every boy had an 
arm or two around some other boy. 

Again Bobbles piped up: “If we only had a gymna- 
sium, and a field and colors — ” 

“ And the earth with a fence around it,” grunted Sawed- 
Off. 

But Bobbles went on : “Now, I ’ve been thinking—” 

“You’ll hurt yourself some of these days,” said Jumbo. 

“I ’ve been thinking,” Bobbles persisted, “of a way 
we can get all these things. My scheme is this: We 


26 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


made $44.50 as our share of the gate-receipts. Well, now, 
we 'll salt that away and—” 

“ Lakerim ! All out ! ” called the driver of their 

omnibus. 

“I '11 tell you about it later,” said Bobbles, as eleven 
fired sleepyheads separated to go home to their well- 
earned pillows and sweet dreams. 


II 



LL correct history-books will tell you that a watched 


Xjl pot has never been known to boil; but they are 
strangely silent as to whether or no a watched lake ever 
puts on ice. 

So, when the calendar got well on into December, the 
Dozen, as they were known to local fame, stood gazing 
long and hard at the lake. They were waiting for the 
water to freeze. 

Thirteen is an unlucky number when Jack Frost is the 
thirteenth. And here he certainly was. He kept out of 
sight himself, but he dabbed red paint on the noses of the 
Twelve, and drove tacks into their finger-tips and toes, 
and ran his cold hands up and down their backbones as 
if they were washboards. 

Still they stood, weeping with the chill, and shivering 
and sniveling and sniffling and shuffling to keep cold. 
But the ripples on the lake danced even more than they 
did— as if, indeed, old Daddy Winter had found a sign 
“ No Thoroughfare 77 when he came that way. 

“ 1 say, let 7 s go in swimmin 7 , 77 spoke up the tiny Jumbo. 

“We might as well have rollers put on our skates/ 7 the 


27 


28 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


huge Sawed-Off spoke down. “This lake ’s forgot how 
to freeze.” 

But, much as they poked sarcasm at it, it only laughed 
back with blue eyes and giggling ripples. It simply 
would not be bullied into becoming a skating-rink for any- 
body. So these bodies must e’en wait. So they waited. 

At length, being sensible boys, they gave up longing for 
what they could not get, and turned to gloating over what 
they had. And their memories were cheery as a camp-fire. 

After the glorious victory won over the foot-ball team 
of the Greenville Military Academy, they had adopted 
Punk’s suggestion and definitely organized themselves 
into a club, which they called after their native city. If 
the lake grew famous only through the town of Lakerim, 
the town of Lakerim grew famous chiefly through the 
wonderful High School athletes, who were organized, as 
the circus-posters would say, into the only and original 
consolidated and accumulated aggregation of unprece- 
dented luminaries of the athletic and gymnastic arena ; 
imported and domesticated at enormous expense, and 
traveling in their own gorgeous argosy of palatial private 
cars ! Any individual marvel is alone worth the price of 
admission ! Don’t forget the name ! 

The Lakerim Athletic Club! 

Come one, come all ! Admission only twenty-five cents. 
Old folks half-price ! Peanuts and lemonade for sale at 
reduced rates. Avoid all servile imitators ! 

12 — Wonders of the World— 12 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


29 


After defeating Greenville, it had been necessary, of 
course, to play a rubber ; so the Greenvilles came over to 
Lakerim like lions seeking whom they might devour, and 
went back like lambs fleeing lest they get devoured. 
Then the Lakerims fell into the habit of winning games 
from almost all the teams they played with. As Tug put 
it, “ They had hit their gait.” And they came out at the 
end of the season with a score of six games won to two 
lost, a neat percentage of seventy-five. 

u How is the treasury this cold day ? ” the living inter- 
rogation-mark inquired. 

“Well,” said Punk, taking a paper out of his pocket, 
“ I Ve been making out a statement for the next club- 
meeting.” 

“ Let ’s have it now,” some one suggested ; and as 
everybody agreed, and there was nothing else to do, the 
Lakerim Athletic Club met in solemn conclave right 
where it stood in the snow ; for the club, as a club, had no 
roof to shelter it from the wintry blast. 

“ Ahem ! ” coughed President Tug, with so much dig- 
nity that the lake almost froze up with a snap. “The 
club will please come to order.” 

Coming to order consisted in ceasing to stamp half- 
frozen feet and trying to keep the chattering teeth from 
making rattle-bones out of themselves. 

“We will dispense with the minutes of the previous 
meeting,” the President began, “ and permit the Secre- 
tary to postpone writing the minutes of this till he gets 


30 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


home.” Which was a good thing, still the Secretary’s 
fingers felt more like breaking off than holding a pencil. 

“ Shall we hear the report of the Treasurer?” 

Every member meant to say, “ Aye ” ; but he was so cold 
that he voted several times with an “ Aye— aye— aye ! ” 
like story-book sailors. 

“ The T-t-reasurerrrr has the f -floor,” said the President. 

Every one looked down and grinned, for the floor was 
snow-white and came up to the Treasurer’s ankles. 

u Mr. President,” said Punk, u I beg to make the follow- 
ing statement of moneys collected and held by me in the 
club’s name in the Lakerim Savings-Bank.” 

You must admit that Punk’s language was very fine (it 
ought to be ; for, just between you and me and the lamp- 
post, he got it out of a book). This was his statement— 
punctuation-marks made by the cold omitted : 


First game of the year, Lakerim vs. Greenville, played at 

Lakerim, no charge for admission $0.00 

Second game, Lakerim vs. Greenville, played at Greenville. 

Our share of the gate-receipts, % 44.50 

Third game, Lakerim vs. Greenville, played at Lakerim Fair 

Grounds. Our share, % 18.39 

Fourth game, played with Brownsville School for Boys. Our 

share, % 39.15 

Fifth game, played with Troy Latin School. Our share, 26.56 

Sixth game, played with Charleston Preparatory School. Our 

share, % 31.20 

Seventh game, played with Kingston Academy. Our share, % 9.00 

Eighth game, played with Charleston Preparatory School. 

Our share, %. 33.32 


Total 


$202.12 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


31 


This was not so bad ; and as they— and their parents — 
had agreed that every man was to pay his own expenses, 
every cent of this was to go to bringing that club-house 
somewhere nearer than Spain. But none of the boys had 
much idea of the size of the contract they had taken. 

By the time the Treasurer’s report was read and ap- 
proved, however, everybody was so cold that everybody 
moved to ad-d-d-j-j-jourrrn, and everybody s-s-s-second- 
deded the m-m-motion, and so it was carried without 
much trouble, and every mother’s son skedaddled for 
home and fireside. 

That night the mercury crawled far down the thermom- 
eter in a vain attempt to keep warm, and the lake gave 
up the fight and put on a thin mask of ice. In a few 
days this was thick enough to bear tons of weight, and 
the boys got out their well-rusted skates and well- 
seasoned hockey-clubs, and proceeded to crack one 
another’s shins and sit all over themselves to their 
hearts’ content. But hard as they fell, the lake always 
seemed to say, like B. J.’s heroes, in a hollow voice : 

“ I can stand it if you can.” 

In time shin-bones learned to quit aching and keep out 
of the way, and in time the boys were all skating with 
last winter’s skill and handling their shinny-clubs with 
some show of reason and agility. 

Little Jumbo was by far the best skater of the lot. 
Sawed-Off said he ought to be, because he had less dis- 
tance to fall than any one else. 

However that may be, Jumbo seemed absolutely fear- 
less and perfectly at home on his steel soles. He was an 


32 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


adept at fancy work, and could do “ Mohawks” and 
“ Maltese crosses ” and “ figure 8*s ” and “ grape-vines ” and 
“ Philadelphias,” and about everything you could think 
of. He wrote his curves with the ease and grace of a 
teacher of penmanship, and could work out his Latin 
exercises with his skates— almost. 

It so fell about— speaking of skating, that is a very fit 
expression— it so fell about, I say, that Jumbo had visited 
in Canada the winter before, and had fallen deeply in 
love with the game of hockey as it is played up there. 
When he heard how it was being taken up in many 
American cities, he proposed that the Lakerims give it 
the final honor of their high and mighty attention. 

“Aw ! ” growled Sleepy, who objected to everything on 
principle, “what do you want to borrow anything from 
the Canucks for ? ” 

“Yes,” said Tug, who was very patriotic, “I think 
we *ve got enough games of our own, without being 
snobs.” 

“ Snobs nothin*,” said Jumbo. “ The only sensible and 
really patriotic way to act is to study other nations, and 
if they have anything better than we have, to borrow it 
and improve on it.” 

“Jumbo *s right,” Sawed-Off said, looking round to see 
if anybody wanted to fight the two of them. “ If you *re 
going to be so blamed exclusive, you *d better drop foot- 
ball and tennis and rowing and skating, and about every- 
thing else—” 

“ Except base-ball/* drawled Sleepy. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


33 


“ Yes, that ’s our own, right enough ; but we can’t play 
it all the year round.” 

After some wrangling they finally voted to take up the 
new game; and there was nothing to do but elect Jumbo 
teacher, trainer, coacher, captain, and general cook and 
bottle-washer. 

Jumbo then delivered a scholarly lecture on the game. 
He said : “ Canadian hockey takes seven men on a side. 
Each side has a goal at the end of a field that can be 
any length you want, but must n’t be less than a hundred 
and twenty feet. The goal is two posts, and they ’re four 
feet high and six feet apart, and they have no cross- 
bar. They have an imaginary one, though, across the 
top ; and to score a goal you ’ve got to shoot the puck 
under it.” 

“ The puck ! What ’s a puck ? ” they all cried. 

History scornfully answered : “ Why, don’t you know ? 
—Puck is a character in one of Shakspere’s plays— * The 
Merry Wives of Mr. Winder,’ I think.” 

Jumbo only grinned at the Knowing One, and took out 
of his pocket a disk of solid vulcanized rubber, three 
inches in diameter and an inch thick. 

“ What ’s that ? ” said History, still beaming with pride. 

“ That ’s a puck,” said Jumbo ; and History’s face fell 
half-way to the ground. “ 1 got it in Canada. They use 
it instead of a ball or a block.” 

“Ora tin can,” added Sleepy. 

“Does n’t seem to me you could knock it very far,” 
said Pretty. 


34 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“You can’t, and you don’t want to. The game is to 
carry it and coax it along with your hockey-stick.” 

“ Don’t you ever knock it ? ” said Quiz. 

“Well, not exactly. But sometimes you lift it.” 

“ What ’s lifting it ? ” said Quiz. 

“Well, it takes a knack to do that. You give your 
club a kind of a sort of a twist, and a lift, and the puck 
goes flying through the air. Some experts can send it 
sixty feet at a lift.” 

“Well, what if it hits you?” said Pretty, thinking of 
his fine teeth. 

“ Well, you ’ll wish it had n’t,” said Jumbo, thinking of 
a certain gap in his ivories. 

“ That does n’t sound very promising,” said Pretty. 

“Every game we play is risky. You can break bones 
in all of ’em— lawn-tennis included. But you ’ll have no 
fun and accomplish nothing in this world if you ’re always 
stopping to think of your bones.” 

“It takes seven men, you say?” was Bobbles’ way of 
returning to the muttons. 

“ Yes j first there ’s the 1 goal-keeper,’ who never leaves 
his goal, but stands inside and stops the puck with his 
stick, his skate, his hand, or his whole body. In front of 
him is another defender called the 1 point.’ In front of 
him a fellow called the 1 cover-point ’ ; he attacks and 
defends, both. And in front of him are four 1 forwards,’ 
who attack.” 

“How do they attack?” said Quiz. “With their 
clubs ? ” 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


35 


“No; you must n’t lift your club above your shoulder, 
and you don’t lift it at all except when you want to check 
a man.” 

“ What is it to check a man ? ” said Quiz. 

“ When you scrape the puck away from his club with 
your own. Then there ’s the body-check, where you bunt 
him with your shoulder, and stop him.” 

“ But what if he ’s skating pretty hard ? ” said Sleepy, 
anxiously. 

“ Well, you get a kind of a jolt,” said Jumbo, meaningly. 

“ And do you sit down hard ? ” Sleepy persisted. 

“ If the ice does n’t rise up and hit you first,” answered 
Jumbo, in a matter-of-fact way. 

“ Um-m ! ” pondered Sleepy ; “ I guess I don’t care much 
about that game.” 

“No,” said Tug, scornfully. “It might keep you 
up.” 

Sleepy only yawned for reply, and dawdled off home. 

“You see,” Jumbo began again, “ the game is one that 
takes a skater who is sure-footed, and not afraid. And 
it takes a good dodger to juke it.” 

“ 1 Juke ’ it ! ” yelled Quiz. “ What does that beautiful 
word mean ? ” 

“ Why,” exclaimed History, superciliously, “ did n’t you 
ever read about the Juke of York, with twenty thousand 
men, who marched up the hill—” 

“And took the elevator down again?” Jumbo finished 
for him. “Well, this is another kind of a Juke. This 
consists in carrying the ball right through the enemy, 


36 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


dodging this way and that, and bringing it ’way down 
toward the goal.” 

“ It ’s like the great run yon made through the line in 
that third Greenville foot-ball game,” said Tug. 

“ Well, something,” Jumbo admitted, with a blush 5 and 
Sawed-Off blushed, too, with equal pride. 

“ Hockey is a good deal like foot-ball, anyway,” Jumbo 
went on. “ Off-side playing is watched closer, though, 
and punished more. Every player who is ahead of the 
man with the puck is off-side till some one of the oppo- 
nents touches the puck. All he can do is to wait for his 
own man to come up with him, or for one of the other 
side to get it. So the forwards usually play pretty well 
spread out in a line, and pass the puck sidewise to one 
another to keep it out of the way of the enemy. You 
can’t pass it forward to your own men— only at right 
angles to the side-line, or backward. And you can’t 
score, as you can in foot-ball, by taking it over the goal- 
line— it ’s got to go through the posts. And— and— I 
guess that ’s enough to begin practising on.” 

Ten of the fellows followed Jumbo to a clear space on 
the lake. Sleepy was dozing on his way home, and His- 
tory had sat on his spectacles and broken them so often 
that his parents forbade his skating. 

The ten survivors were not much interested in the 
game till they had got the hang of it pretty well. Then 
they were all enthusiasts, and before long Jumbo was 
ready to choose his men. And “We are Seven ” was one 
of their mottos, and “ All for Lakerim ” was their other. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


37 


One good-looking morning a crowd of young fellows 
from the Preparatory School at Charleston-on-the-Lake 
came skating that way to mop up the ice with anything 
they could find at Lakerim. They brought hockey-clubs 
for mop-sticks ; and after some banter an informal game 
was set going. 

A narrow inlet of the lake made a good hockey-rink; 
and the positions of the Lakerims were these : 

Goal . ; 

• Goal-keeper — Sawed-Off 

• Point — Bobbles 

* Cover-point — Jumbo 
Forwards Punk B. J. Tug Pretty 


In just the same arrangement inverted, the Charleston 
seven faced them. 

This was the formal arrangement, though in reality the 
boys were rarely just so placed. B. J. usually played 
back a little to return the puck to the forwards, or, as 
they say, to “feed it in.” And the rest scurried hither 
and thither, according to the change of each moment. 

A referee was selected and sides were chosen by toss. 
The referee skated to the center of the field and put the 
puck on the ice. Tug and one of the Charleston forwards 
took positions to “ face it off.” They put their clubs 
down against either side of the puck, and stood as taut as 
a main-sheet in a good wind, and waited for the referee’s 

3 


38 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


whistle. After they had paused with eyes staring at the 
puck till they began to think that he had forgotten them 
altogether or had evaporated, the shrill signal came, and 
the game was on. 

Tug and his rival jabbed and scraped at the puck till it 
finally came out of the scrimmage between Tug’s heels, 
for his opponent was the more skilful of the two. Tug 
had a mighty ado to disentangle himself from the persis- 
tent puck 5 but finally the Charleston man poked it out 
and shoved past. 

Then B. J. confronted him with ready stick, and swiped 
at the puck, only to see it scoot swiftly to the left, where 
another Charleston forward gathered it in and dashed 
down the right of the Lakerim field. Him Jumbo cut 
off, but not before he had sent the puck merrily to his 
left, where a third forward got it. He shot down the left 
of the field until Bobbles headed him off. And just as 
Bobbles called the puck his own, it was clear across the 
ice and on the stick of another Charleston forward who 
had an unobstructed field at the right. He dashed for 
the posts, and when he was near enough gave a quick, 
twisting lift and shot the puck straight for a goal. 

But Sawed-Off was waiting with a wild glare, and he 
caught the puck with his left hand, flung it down, and 
with a quick blow of the club knocked it spinning side- 
wise. 

All the Lakerims were of course off-side, and must wait 
till the dashing Charlestonian started back for another 
try at goal. Then they took him in hand, and there was 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


39 


a charming scrimmage. Four or five of the players came 
together at that point at the same time, and promptly 
lifted their feet in air and sat down to think it over. 
Some one of them was sitting on the puck, and all were 
jabbed and prodded unmercifully till they scrambled to 
their feet and restored the long-lost puck to the light of day. 

After some lively give and take, Jumbo scooped it and 
passed it across to Bobbles j but he was n’t looking for it, 
and a Charlestonian swept it away and brought it to 
Sawed-Off’s door again. 

Lakerim was quite bewildered at the swift changes of 
the game as handled by trained players. The puck was 
here, there, and everywhere at the same time. 

“Now you see it, and now you don’t,” gasped Pretty. 

Sawed-Off filled enough of the goal-space to block the 
second attempt at goal. He simply moved his big body, 
and though the puck stung, it dropped to the ice, and he 
shot it far to the right. But a Charleston forward was 
playing well over and waiting for it. He had it back in 
the center instanter, and there was a fierce mix-up in 
front of goal. The Lakerims could not get the puck 
away from Charleston, however, and the third quick shot 
for goal found a cranny, somewhere where Sawed-Off was 
not, and the scoring had begun. 

“Boys,” said Jumbo, “it ’s team work that counts in 
this game, not grand-stand plays. Keep your eye on the 
puck, and always be ready to get it on a pass, or to pass 
it when it is in danger. Let every man know where 
every other man is.” 


40 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


After the second face-off, the Lakerims, by concerted 
action among the forwards, managed to get the puck 
down into Charleston, but only for a moment now and 
then. After zigzagging it back and forth for some time, 
a Charlestonian suddenly gave it a beautiful lift. It flew 
high in the air, and came down on the edge, and rolled at 
Bobbles, who stopped it with his skate. 

He made that fatal mistake, however, a slow start ; and 
before he could recover any of the ground gained through 
the lift, two of the Charleston forwards were on him. 
As the first of them went by, he gave a fierce blow at the 
puck with his club. It came down hard on Bobbles 7 
right hand, and he dropped his stick with a loud “ Ouch ! 77 
Before he could recover it, the puck was in the elbow of 
a Charleston club, and jogging gaily down the ice. 

Sawed-Off grew impatient at all this, deserted his sen- 
try-post, and started forward to stop the advance. But 
the Charleston man simply gave a sudden swerve to the 
right, and then one to the left, and lo ! he was past 
Sawed-Off, and through the goal-posts before you could 
say, “The sea ceaseth, and it sufficeth it. 77 Score: 
Charleston— 2 ; Lakerim— 0. 

Then Jumbo skated toward Sawed-Off, and from his 
little height looked up at his gigantic chum, and threat- 
ened to put a head on him if he left the goal-posts again. 

Sawed-Off looked down at Jack the Giant-Killer, and 
meekly promised to resist all temptations. 

At the third face-off Tug carried away the honors and 
the puck, and by a quick pass to Pretty saw it advanced 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


41 


well into Charleston territory. Pretty disappeared into a 
wild scrimmage, and the puck came out in the enemy’s 
charge. Tng met the onrnshing player with a vigorous 
body-check that nearly shook his teeth loose. 

But more to Tug’s delight, it shook the puck loose, and 
he took the little misplaced discus under his own wing. 
He dodged one Charlestonian, but saw himself about to 
fall prey to another, and passed the puck across to B. J., 
who took it forward until the opposing cover-point fell 
foul of him, when he sent it to Punk, who got past the 
Charleston point, but lost it there to the enemy. Jumbo 
came up with a bird-like swoop, however, and picked it out 
of the tangle of clubs and feet, and shot it between the 
legs of the goal-keeper for a goal. Score : Charleston— 2 • 
Lakerim— 1. 

The game went on, with changes as sudden and com- 
plete as those of a twirled kaleidoscope; but when the 
twenty minutes of the first half were over, the foreigners 
had coined another goal. Score: Charleston— 3 ; Lake- 
rim — 1. 

Friends furnished overcoats, and the players gathered 
round a fire on shore. There was only one fire, so Jumbo 
invited his visitors to join them, and borrowed some 
wraps, overcoats, and girls’ cloaks. He had no chance to 
coach his men, except indirectly, and, as it were, over the 
shoulders of the enemy. 

“You fellows are the right stuff,” he said hospitably. 
“We don’t know the game very well here. I don’t mean 
to say you could n’t beat us even if we did ; but we might 


42 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


make it more interesting for yon. Your team-play is 
simply great. I wish onr boys would work together bet- 
ter. They are too blamed anxious to do it all by their 
lonesomes. We ’ve got some good material, though, 
don’t you think?” 

“Well, there are no flies on you” their captain said to 
Jumbo. “I wish you ’d come over to Charleston to 
school. We ’d make a star player out of you in no time.” 

Jumbo was sorry now that he had spoken, and he 
blushed modestly and guessed he ’d just as soon stay at 
home. And when the ten-minute rest was up, he went 
among his men, with words of suggestion and encourage- 
ment. 

Charleston began the next half with a speedily gained 
goal due to a combination of mischances that left Lake- 
rim badly muddled. Jumbo only set his teeth hard, and 
decided that if the game were to be kept from going from 
the very bad of 4 to 1 to something still worse, it was 
time to begin. He hung about all the scrimmages, wait- 
ing for a chance at the puck ; but he was always checked 
or off-side at the critical moment, till the battle was 
worked far into his own country, and close to his goal. 

Then he saw his chance, and pulled the puck away from 
an opponent, and set sail for foreign parts. He had all 
the Charleston forwards but one in front of him. And 
people still talk of the beautiful way he juked it through 
the swarm of his enemies. A corkscrew could n’t have 
gone through them better. He gave a sudden leap to the 
right to avoid this forward, and a jump to the left to pass 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


43 


that one, and a sudden stop and swish round the last one. 
He led the cover-point a fine chase, and suddenly dug his 
skate into the ice, stopped short, and let the fellow pass 
him like a cannon-ball. Then he came full tilt on the 
Charleston point, who waited, expecting to check him. 

But just as a sloop would save herself from collision 
with a man-of-war, he suddenly luffed up, and was along- 
side when he should have been across the bows, and was 
astern when he should have been sinking. 

The Charleston goal-keeper alone opposed him. Jumbo 
gave the puck a good high lift. It struck the man in the 
mouth, and brought out a growl of pain. When it 
dropped to the ground, and before the keeper could shove 
it aside, Jumbo shot it past his right toe for goal. Score : 
Charleston— 4 $ Lakerim— 2. 

For the next attack he sent his forwards along in open 
order, with special instructions to be quick in passing the 
puck from one to the other. He followed right at their 
heels as feeder, and after some close calls saw Pretty send 
the puck between the goal-posts. Score : Charleston— 4 ; 
Lakerim— 3. 

Then, try as they would, they could n’t hold the Charles- 
tons. Jumbo fought so hard that he was twice caught 
playing off-side, and had the misery of giving the enemy 
the puck and a line-up at that point, with the Lakerims 
put five feet back. And much as Sawed-Off tried liter- 
ally to fill his place, the puck got past him, and the Charles- 
tons were again two goals ahead, the score being 5 to 3. 

Then Jumbo saw a Charleston forward preparing to lift 


44 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


the puck past his forwards, and he bent his knees and 
waited till it flew over his head j then he straightened his 
wiry little legs and shot up in the air after it. His left 
hand struck it and brought it down. Jumbo sprawled on 
the ice when he lit, but knocked the puck to Tug, who had 
hurried back to him, and watched it go zigzagging down 
the ice for another goal at Pretty’s hands. 

Now the referee announced that there was only a little 
time left, and Jumbo saw that his one hope lay in tying 
the score. This would compel a lengthening of the time. 

He outlined his plan of action as they went for the next 
face-off. He spoke to his best men, and bided his time. 
At length the opportunity came, Tug got the puck, and 
Jumbo, who was just behind him, gave him the word. 
Tug gave the puck a magnificent lift down the field, but 
well to one side where there were no Charleston men. 
Jumbo dashed forward like a bullet, and reached the puck 
before any of the opposing men could get there. Tug 
followed at his very heels, and when Jumbo gave another 
fine lift over Charleston heads to the other side, he was 
up and away and had the puck before the enemy got near 
it. When they dashed for him, he drove the puck for a 
beautiful pass across again to Jumbo, who made goal with 
it, and tied the score just as the referee opened his mouth 
to shout, u Time ! ” 

It was now necessary to play a supplement, and give 
the game to the team that made the first goal. By vari- 
ous passes, exciting to watch, but tedious to tell, the now 
hopeful and determined Lakerims managed to work the 


JUMBO MAKING THE GOAT 






THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


47 


puck Charleston way, and finally Jumbo got it near one of 
the banks of the lake (these were the only side-lines they had). 

He dodged here and there to get through the Charleston 
forwards, but his way was blocked everywhere, till a sud- 
den idea struck him. He dashed straight at the Charles- 
tonian who guarded the edge, and just as he reached him, 
shot the puck hard to the right and went round to the 
left. The Charlestonian looked aghast at seeing the puck 
go one way and the player another ; but when he saw the 
puck strike a shelving bank of stone and carom off be- 
hind him into the loving clutches of Jumbo, he looked 
aghaster. He recognized that Jumbo had brought a trick 
of the rinks outdoors, and a moment later he recognized 
a Jumbo-esque lift on the puck going through his own 
goal. And he recognized the end of the game, and the 
voices of Lakerim people cheering the victors, who were 
even more surprised than their victims. 

By this time the Charlestonians were so sick of hockey 
and the ice in general that they had no heart to limp 
home on skates. So they arranged for a return game in 
the rink in their city, hired a Lakerim carryall, and went 
away ignominiously on wheels. 

As they disappeared, History, who knew about as much 
Latin as a drug-clerk, went out on the scene of victory, 
waved Jumbo's shinny-club in air, and cried : 

u In hockey signo vinces ! ” 

Whereupon Pretty very properly pushed his feet out 
from under him, and when he hit the ice he saw more 
stars than his astronomy text-book ever dreamed of. 


48 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


The fellows that had not played now felt strong 
enough to skate a little, and came out on the ice with 
girls from the crowd of spectators. They chose, of course, 
the rosiest-cheeked— and, I must admit, rosiest-nosed— 
maids, and went gliding in couples as if the ice were as 
good as any ball-room floor, as indeed it was. So they 
glided— or should I say “glode” ?— and filled their lungs 
with a wholesome air, and their muscles with a whole- 
some weariness. 

But Heady, as he went to ask his particular fancy to 
glide with him, was pounced on by a great, overgrown 
fat girl who had never learned to skate. 

“ Oh, hello ! ” she cried. “ I ’m going to let you teach 
me.” 

“ Thanks,” said Heady ; 11 but I—” 
u Oh, you two boys skate so well that my father told 
me I must be sure to get you to teach me.” 

Heady did n’t just see what her father had to say 
about it, but he could n’t skate around her, and he was 
afraid to try breaking away from her clutches, lest she 
should fall on him; so he surrendered as gracefully as 
possible, and led her out on the ice, expecting to hear 
it crack under them. 

u Which of the twins are you ? ” she asked. 

Heady wished he had been the other; but he did n’t 
say so. He found, to his glad disappointment, that she 
was quick to learn, and very light on her feet for all her 
weight, and had a better balance than many a thinner 
person. She was much like a top, in fact, and they were 
soon spinning about right merrily. 



“HE WENT SKATING BACKWARD, DRAGGING THE HEAVY GIRL 

AFTER HIM.” 







THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


51 


At length they encountered the weary but high-hearted 
Jumbo, who had not stopped to rest, but was giving one 
of his men a few points he had picked up from studying 
Charleston methods. 

As soon as she saw him, the fat girl halloed to him, 
and left Heady completely in the lurch while she show- 
ered congratulations on the hero of the day; which 
did n’t please Heady altogether. 

“One of the twins has just taught me how to skate, 
and you must skate with me,” she cried. 

“ I ; m afraid 1 7 m too tired,” said Jumbo, appalled at the 
thought of dragging such a weight around the lake. 

“Oh, that does n’t matter,” the girl exclaimed; “it ’ll 
do you good.” 

She was dragging Jumbo along as a captive, when he 
thought of a way of escape, and said : “ I ’ll tell you, let ’s 
skate for home. You live on the other side of town, too, 
and I know a short cut around that little point.” 

The girl gaily agreed, and they struck out together— 
the tugboat towing the ocean liner. When they rounded 
the wooded point, they found the ice quite deserted. The 
neck of land hid all the crowd they had left behind. But 
he knew the way, and she had no fears. So, tired as he 
was, he went skating backward, dragging the heavy girl 
after him. He was too dead tired to look round much, 
and the girl was too busy enjoying the speed and ease of 
her glide to notice where they went. 

But suddenly there was a loud rattle and clatter and 
boom, and the ice crashed under and all around them. 


62 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


The fat girl flung her arms about Jumbo’s neck ; and hard 
as he strove to tread water and find support, she bore him 
down 5 and the ice splintered and sank with him as he 
grasped at it. 

The bitter-cold water sent a chill through his flesh, but 
he felt the cold clear to the marrow of his bones when his 
wild eyes saw not a living soul or a possible rescuer on 
the whole surface of the lake. And then his head went 
under, and the water filled the mouth of the terrified girl 
as she tried to scream for help. 


Ill 



‘HEN Jumbo’s head sank beneath the water it did 


not take him more than twenty minutes to realize 


that unless he could free himself from the girl’s despairing 
clutches, he would be what the poets call “ a goner.” He 
gave a desperate wrench, and tore her arms from about 
his neck, and thrust her away from him. Then he came 
to the surface, feeling fully fifteen times fighter, and pro- 
ceeded to scramble for safety. But just as he found a 
piece of ice strong enough to clamber on, he bethought 
him of the cowardice of leaving the girl to drown. With- 
out hesitation he dropped back in the water, and in a 
stroke or two he had swum round behind her. He put 
his two hands under her arms, and set to treading water 
violently. 

By desperate efforts he managed to keep her head up, 
though his own sank frequently. He screamed for help 
until he dared not spend any more of his precious breath, 
and then fought silently and furiously for fife. 

For whole long minutes he trampled the water under 
him as if he were climbing some hateful stairway whose 


53 


54 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


steps slid always away beneath him. No one was to be seen 
anywhere within the rim of the great wheel of the hori- 
zon, and at length he was too tired and too weak to strug- 
gle any more. He gave up the fight and resigned himself 
to die, like a man— like a man who gives his life pluckily, 
trying to save a woman’s. He stopped his frantic tread- 
ing, and let himself sink away as if to sleep. And the 
water closed triumphantly over his head. 

Artemus Ward told once of a man that was put in a 
dungeon for life. After staying there sixteen weary years 
a bright idea struck him. He raised the window and got 
out. Now, Jumbo had skated backward until he was 
near the shore and right over a long sand-bar. He had 
trodden water with bent knees, and the fat girl had 
doubled herself up in a terrified way that had made it all 
the harder for Jumbo to keep her afloat, heavy as she was. 
Now, when he yielded to his fate like a philosopher and a 
hero, and let himself sink, he was surprised to find how 
soon his feet touched bottom. Instinctively he straight- 
ened his knees, and stood upright ! And found his head 
above water ! Consequently he was safe. He could n’t 
tell whether he was more delighted or disgusted. 

When he had straightened the hysterical girl to her feet 
he climbed on the ice, and dragged her on it, where it was 
extra strong. She wanted to stop and have a good cry, 
but he grabbed her by the hand and started for home on 
a dead run, hauling her after him. He left her in front 
of her own gate, when he saw some one coming from the 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


55 


house, and started for his own home and fireside. He was 
so tired when he got there that he never knew precisely 
what they did to him. 

Then began a procession of doctors and apothecaries 7 
boys, friends and nurses, cold baths and hot baths and 
medicines, till the two in their separate homes almost 
wished themselves in the lake again. 

But they came out of the ordeal without pneumonia, or 
any of the other things everybody predicted, and took up 
life again, as before. Only thereafter, the girl, whose 
name, it is time to tell, was Carrie Shields, appropriated 
Jumbo for her very own ; and he decided that if the girl 
was worth risking life for, she must be a pretty fine girl. 
Besides, he felt very much at home in her company, be- 
cause her size reminded him of the size of his sworn 
chum, Sawed-Off. 


IV 


J UST as Jumbo was restored to his friends, several 
cases of diphtheria made their appearance in the High 
School, and the School Board decided it prudent to dis- 
continue the sessions and grant a vacation of at least a 
week. Fond as I am of these twelve young gentlemen, I 
cannot so stretch the truth as to say that any of them 
were sorry for the vacation, except possibly History, who 
shone chiefly in the school-room. The rest of them would 
probably have given three cheers if the school-house had 
burned down. 

Saturday morning the Dozen drifted together, and 
began to wonder what they were going to do with all of 
their spare time. 

“I move we go strawberry-picking,” said Sawed-Off. 
Pretty, who was always scheming to bring girls into 
the pastimes of the Twelve, proposed a moonlight sleigh- 
ride. 

“ But we can’t stay sleigh-riding for a week,” said Punk. 
“ We might begin with a snow fort.” 

“Oh, we don’t want any of those baby sports,” said 
B. J. “ I ’d just as lief skip rope.” 

56 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


57 


“ Baby sports, eh 1 ” said Reddy. “ Well, if you ’d hear 
my father argue with my uncle about Fort Donelson and 
Vicksburg, you would n't think taking a fort was any 
child’s play.” 

“You see my— our dad,” said Heady, “was a Union 
man, and my— our uncle was a Johnny Reb.” 

Then Tug broke in : “ Well, if we could have something 
like a real battle—” 

“ Why not ? ” said Reddy and his brother with one voice. 
“ Dad and uncle could coach us.” 

“ The two sides ought to be evenly matched,” said Punk. 
“How would it do to have the twins command opposite 
sides as rival captains 1 ” 

“ Great scheme ! ” the rest shouted, and the twins were 
elected on the spot. 

After a deal of talking and wrangling, it was decided 
that they should go about the matter in an elaborate 
manner that would make the battle one worth remember- 
ing. They tossed up a penny, and it decided that Heady 
should command the fort and build it wherever he pleased, 
and take two days for building it $ that the war should 
open Wednesday morning, and that if the fort were not 
captured by Saturday noon, Heady should be granted the 
victory. 

It was decided that the twins should be called generals, 
and that each of the remaining ten should be a colonel, and 
should have the power to enlist no more than ten men 
from the rest of the school to serve under him. They 
had no difficulty in recruiting men from the school, and 

4 


58 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


two armies were soon in the field, forty privates on one 
side and sixty on the other. This made qnite a lively 
battle out of it, and one such as had never been seen in 
Lakerim before. 

Reddy was to have six colonels, and his brother only 
four 5 but the brother was to have the first choice. He 
chose Tug; then Reddy chose Punk. Then his brother 
chose Bobbles, and Reddy chose Jumbo. Sawed-Off being 
picked out next, Reddy took B. J. Heady chose Quiz, and 
Reddy, Pretty. This left Sleepy and History to Reddy, 
but he chose Sleepy as the lesser of two evils, and offered 
to present History to the other side. Heady said that 
History had good hands for making snowballs, and ac- 
cepted him. 

A wail went up from Jumbo and Sawed-Off, who did 
not want to be on opposite sides ; they threatened not to 
fight at all, or to fight then and there. Heady declined to 
have Sawed-Off outside the fort, for fear he would reach 
over the walls and capture it alone ; so a compromise was 
finally made after a terrible dispute, and Heady traded 
Tug for Jumbo. 

Now there was another quarrel about the choice of 
flags ; both of the Generals wanted the American flag, and 
neither would take any other • so History finally suggested 
that they use two Revolutionary emblems, one with a 
pine-tree and one with a rattlesnake. Heady chose the 
former as appropriate for a fort, and girl friends were 
only too glad to make the two standards. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


59 


The roster of officers then was as follows : 


General Reddy. 
Brigadier Tug. 
Colonel Punk. 


General Heady. 
Colonel Bobbles. 

“ Sawed-Off. 
11 Jumbo. 

“ Quiz. 
History, Orderly. 


“ B. J. 

“ Pretty. 
“ Sleepy. 


Colonel Tng commanded two regiments of ten men 
each ; for, while Reddy presented his brother with His- 
tory, he did not present him with the ten men. So Tug 
was really a brigadier-general, and History was not even 
a corporal. But Heady made him his orderly, and he 
was not enough interested in what he called their “ child- 
ishness ” to be dissatisfied. 

Early the next morning, Heady and Bobbles sneaked 
off into the woods to find a good place for a fort. An 
ideal spot was at length discovered. Back of a thick 
grove was a ravine, through which ran a little brook. The 
bank of this was steep and gullied. A rail fence ran along 
the top of the crest; beyond this was a steep mound 
known as the Hawk’s Nest. It ended at a long cliff that 
went almost straight down to the lake below. This 
height, indeed, was much like the half of a gigantic choc- 
olate-drop cut in two from top to bottom. 

Heady and Bobbles went home in a roundabout way, 
and told no one of their discovery. 

Monday morning, after breakfast, the army that was 
to build and defend Fort Lakerim formed in line and 
marched in good order in a direction directly opposite to 


60 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


their real destination. Reddy was too busy collecting 
his men and whipping them into shape to pay any heed 
for the moment to the movements of Heady. By the 
time he got round to it, the army of defense had disap- 
peared to the westward. 

Heady led his fearless men by a long detour round to 
the chosen battle-ground. Both he and Reddy had almost 
questioned the lives out of their uncle and father, and 
had learned many things of value. When Heady entered 
the grove in front of the Hawk’s Nest, he scattered 
through the woods a few men for picket duty. He led 
the rest of his forces across the little brook, which was 
frozen, up the gully, and through the fence. And now he 
set about the task of building the fort. 

While it is not now considered a good plan to build a 
star-shaped fort, Heady realized that a battle with snow- 
balls is very different from a war with artillery and other 
deadly weapons. So he built his fort in the shape of half 
a star ; in front of it he threw up three redans, A, B, and 
C, and he reinforced the rail fence in certain spots with a 
light wall of snow. The walls of the fort and the redans 
were made as high as was convenient for throwing. 
They were packed hard with spades, and at night water 
was brought from the brook by a bucket brigade, and 
poured over them, so that on Wednesday morning they 
were frozen into a very respectable kind of masonry. 

Realizing that one of the advantages of a snow battle 
is in having unlimited ammunition all about your feet, 
Heady had his men roll what snow was left on the mound, 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


61 


after the building of the fortifications, into the fort, where 
it was piled into an enormous pyramid. In this way he 
proved himself a good general, according to two great 
principles of war, which are : first, to provide and protect 
your own supplies ; and, second, to hinder the enemy in 
the matter of his. - 

The ground was too hard for digging trenches j the 
mound, in fact, was no more than rock with a thin cover- 
ing of turf. To allow the walls of the fort to be as high 
as possible, Heady built a platform of stones, picked up 
off the field, all around their inside. In this way it was 
possible to make them higher than the heads of any at- 
tacking party. 

There was in the fort a gate taken bodily from a rail 
fence some distance away, and protected with sharp 
branches and sticks until it was a regular chevaux-de-frise. 
About the front of the fort Heady intended to build an 
abatis of logs and sharp-pointed brush ; but fearing that 
the enemy might find it of more use than hindrance, he 
decided not to build it. 

Inside the fort he had a number of huge snowballs, and 
provided for them little inclined railroads of saplings, on 
which they could be rolled up to the walls and tipped over 
upon the heads of the enemy. He had a number of men 
at work making great heaps of hand-balls, which he stored 
in pyramids in the redans and in the fort. And he pro- 
vided himself with a number of ice-cream scoops, which 
could be dug into the snow pyramids, bringing out just 
a good handful, which, with one quick pat, could be made 
into a ball of fine possibilities. 


62 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


The three redans were so placed as to command the 
approach to the mound, and they were too far from the 
fort to be of use as counter-forts for the enemy if they 
were captured. 

Monday evening Heady led his weary men home by the 
same roundabout way, and dismissed them for the night. 
Tuesday morning early they met, formed in line, and re- 
turned to the field secretly. By Tuesday night everything 
was ready for a stubborn defense. 

Reddy was so busy drilling his men that he did not 
feel able to send out any scouts upon a reconnoissance 
until Tuesday afternoon. These men followed the foot- 
prints of Heady’s army, and after a long, roundabout 
chase finally came upon the picket-line in the woods, but 
were driven away before they could make any discoveries 
of value, or get even a glimpse of the fort. 

Reddy instructed his men in marching and counter- 
marching, training them principally in open-order drill, 
teaching them to assemble upon their colonel at the com- 
mand, and rally quickly about him at the signal. The 
movements by the right and left flank, “ column left ” and 
“right,” “to the rear— march ! ” and “fours right” and 
“ left,” were about all the movements necessary. The men 
were trained to do all these in double, as well as in quick, 
time. 

He gave his men good practice, too, in throwing at a 
mark, and taught them to answer promptly and in unison 
to the three commands, “ Load ! ” (which meant make a 
snowball), “Ready ! ” and “ Fire ! ” Each man was directed 
to provide himself with a luncli-pouch, a canteen of 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


63 


cold tea, and a large bag, like a newsboy’s, for ammu- 
nition. 

Reddy thought he would telegraph for one or two base- 
ball-pitching machines, and use them as artillery j and his 
brother agreed to this when they talked it over at home 
on Monday night, and decided that he would have a 
couple himself. But the father and the uncle objected, 
and the plan was dropped. 

Early Wednesday morning Heady’s men entered their 
fort, and erected in the center of the parapet the flag of 
the pine-tree. They brought their lunches along. Their 
war-cry was , u ’Rah, ’rah, ’rah ! — Steady ! ” Reddy’s battle- 
cry was, “ Hurrah, hurrah ! — Ready ! ” 

At eleven o’clock Reddy’s scouts were halted by Heady’s 
picket-line in the woods. The advance-guard came up ; there 
was a short skirmish, and the pickets fell back. A brief 
stand was made at the brook, and then Heady withdrew 
his men behind the rail fence, or the “ outworks,” as he 
called it. 

Reddy made charge after charge up to the rail fence ; 
but Heady had drilled his men to throw hard and straight 
till the snowballs in their bags were exhausted, and then 
to drop back and refill them while the reserve men in the 
rear rushed forward with fresh ammunition. So he re- 
sisted every charge. 

Reddy sent his men up, all along the line, only to see 
them driven back. He concentrated his attack on vari- 
ous spots, but owing to the difficulty of throwing when 
the men were crowded together, he found that this only 
gave the enemy a target they could not miss. 


64 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


It was a steep climb up tbe embankment, and the men 
had to retire and rest long between charges, for there was 
nothing for them to lie down behind. But at length, at 
about five o’clock, he led a furious assault in person. He 
found the enemy’s available ammunition almost exhausted • 
he called up his reserves, and these were too much for 
Heady’s men. They did great execution with their last 
few snowballs, but could not stand the pelting of Reddy’s 
soldiers, and finally, in spite of Heady’s exhortations, 
broke and sought refuge in the redans. 

By the time Reddy’s men had clambered over the fence, 
Heady’s men had climbed the gullies and were safely en- 
sconced behind snow fortifications, which, Reddy saw, it 
was of no use to attack with weary troops. So he sent 
forward Colonel Sleepy with a flag of truce and a proposal 
for an armistice. He could not have chosen a more con- 
vincing man to carry a message asking for a rest, and the 
opposing General rejoiced the Colonel’s heart by agreeing 
to the armistice. 

The two armies marched home in good order, all except 
a few unhappy wretches who were left as sentinels to pro- 
tect the fort until ten o’clock. They did n’t particularly 
enjoy the prospect, but being threatened with court-mar- 
tial, decided to stay. It was well they did, for two of the 
privates of Reddy’s army, without asking Reddy’s per- 
mission, sneaked back after dark, intending to punch a 
few holes in the fort and pitch the great pyramid of am- 
munition over the precipice. But they were captured by 
the sentinels, who felt inclined to hang the spies on one 



KEDDY’S FOKCES MAKING AN ATTACK UTON THE FOKT COMMANDED BY HEADY 















































































































































































. 


























































































































































































' 







































































































THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


67 


of the pine-trees, but decided to kick them down-hill in- 
stead. And the two guerrillas limped home— “ foiled 
again,” as one of B. J.’s heroes would have said. 

Thursday morning a big crowd of townspeople came to 
see the famous battle ; they stood just outside the woods 
on the other side of the brook, and watched with great 
interest and in perfect safety a first attempt Reddy’s men 
made to climb the ravine and gain a foothold at the top. 
But the bullets from the redans fell in a merciless shower, 
and one particularly promising assault was met with a 
gigantic snowball that came crashing down, caught Colo- 
nel Punk’s regiment on the flank, and bowled it over like 
a house of cards. The regiment picked itself up at the 
bottom of the gully, and retired to get the snow out of the 
back of its neck. 

Hard was the battle before those redans, and many a 
noble scramble up ended only in an ignoble tumble down. 
The mortality was frightful, and the tearing of clothes 
and the bruising of hands sickening to see. At half -past 
five the defenders proposed an armistice for the night j but 
Reddy was so furious over his failure to gain ground all 
day that he refused to respect any flag of truce, and used 
language very unbecoming in a correspondence between 
two famous generals. He wrote on a piece of paper torn 
from a composition-book : 

“ My terms are unconditional surrender. I propose to 
fight it out on this line if it takes me all night.” 

History told Heady at the council of war that he did n’t 
believe those words were entirely original with Reddy. 


68 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


He thought that General Jackson had sent them to General 
Braddock at the battle of Gettysburg. But Heady said he 
did n’t care where Reddy got the words ; he would treat them 
with scorn if they had been written by George Washington. 

Indeed, he stepped on the angle of the central redan 
and hurled a loud defiance at Reddy. He borrowed most 
of it from one of the recitations he frequently delivered 
Friday afternoons,— “ My voice is still for war,”— but it 
was none the less effective for its familiarity. But when 
the audience broke out in applause, it reminded him of 
his usual stage-fright, and he dropped out of view in great 
embarrassment. 

There are many different kinds of fear, however, and 
his was for anything but battle. He told his undaunted 
men that they were to sup on the remnants of their mid- 
day rations, and they acquiesced with good grace, though 
they wished they had eaten less voraciously at one o’clock, 
and had not thrown so many crumbs over the cliff. 

The moon was well up that night before the sun was 
well down, and the battle was soon resumed. 

After one or two futile assaults, Reddy concentrated on 
the redan on his extreme left (A). In the darkness he 
was able to send a strong detachment by a roundabout 
route up to a height where he could make a flank attack 
on the redan, which, of course, offered the defenders no 
protection except from the front. The soldiers in redan 
A were taken completely by surprise, and their commander, 
Colonel Quiz, could not hold them. They retreated pell- 
mell to the second redan, where their horrified General 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


69 


rebuked them in strong language. They were so piqued 
by this that, when he ordered a charge to recapture the 
redan, they answered with a cheer, and managed to drive 
the men whom Reddy had sent up under Colonel Punk 
out of the redan. But at this very moment reinforcements 
came, and an assault was made which Heady’s men could 
not resist. They were driven out again, and withdrew 
stubbornly to the central redan. 

Heady saw with chagrin that Reddy had turned his 
flank, and that he could not long hold his position. But 
he contested every inch of the ground until he saw him- 
self in danger of being surrounded and cut off from his 
fort. Then only he gave the command for a general 
retreat. All the ammunition of redans A and B had 
been exhausted. When he called in the troops in redan 
C, Colonel Sawed-Off, who was in command there, neg- 
lected to bring away a goodly store of snowballs, which 
fell into the enemy’s hands. 

After his brother’s army had retreated in good order 
to the fort, however, Reddy found himself at the top of 
the hill without ammunition. What missiles had fallen 
into his hands were not enough to supply his men ; and 
finding that the builders of the fort had swept the mound 
so clean of snow that he could forage no ammunition 
there, he was unable to press his advantage, much as he 
desired to make a quick assault on the fort at a time when 
the enemy were in confusion and could hardly be suitably 
assigned to their posts to protect the walls. The redans 
were made of snow frozen too hard to yield to the fingers 


70 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


of his men, and he was forced to propose a cessation of 
hostilities till the next day. 

You, with all your generalship, have doubtless noted a 
very foolish blunder on Reddy’s part. When he flanked 
redan A, he should, of course, have swooped down on the 
unprotected fort at once. The capture would have been 
easy. But Reddy’s motto was that of General Grant, to 
find the enemy and fight him. It simply never occurred 
to him that he could take the fort with one rush. But 
the greatest of generals have made blunders as bad as 
that of these two warriors. 

Even the scientific General Robert E. Lee left Rich- 
mond so unguarded once, in the first year of the Civil 
War, that General McClellan could have taken it at a 
dash, if he had known j and for a worse bit of bungling, 
look at the story of Bunker Hill, where the British 
marched up the hill three times, and then ran down 
again, when, if they had only gone up the other side of 
it, the colonial trenches would have been useless. So 
don’t judge Reddy harshly. 

Had Heady known how nearly unarmed the assaulting 
troops were, he would have made a furious sortie from the 
fort, with the pouches of his men reloaded from the re- 
serve supply inside ; but the moonlight was too indistinct 
for him to make out the condition of the opposing hosts, 
and his men were so cold, hungry, and tired that he ac- 
cepted the armistice without parley. 

When Reddy went home that night, his father, who 
had been coaching him, said: 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


71 


“ My boy, I have been watching the battle from a dis- 
tance to-day, and while your men fight like wildcats, you 
make one grand mistake. It is the way of these modern 
soldiers, however. All they seem to think about nowadays 
is to protect their own men. They think more about that 
than about harming the enemy. Now, General Grant won 
the Civil War the only way it could be won— by treating 
his men as if they were machines, and not sparing them 
at any place where they could accomplish anything. Now, 
you fight in open order.” 

“ But, dad, if I have my men closed up, they can be hit 
twice as easily ; it would be next to impossible to miss 
them,” said Reddy. 

“ That is just it, my boy j but don't you see that your 
brother fights with his men as close together as they can 
stand ? ” 

“ It 's easy for him to do that,” said Reddy, “ because 
he is protected by walls.” 

“ Yes ; but don't you see that when you charge on him 
in open order, he has about three men to fight each one 
of yours? When we charged in the war, whenever a 
man dropped in the line we were ordered to close up. 
They could shoot more of us, but when we reached their 
walls we were a solid line, man to man j and while they 
had their walls, we had the impetus of our run, and then 
it was something like an even battle.” 

Reddy took these words to heart. 

The long day's fighting had so exhausted officers and 
men that almost all of them overslept the next morn- 


72 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


ing j and while Reddy was up bright and early, he could 
not get his men into line before half-past one Friday 
afternoon. Heady’s forces made no better showing. 

When Reddy’s army moved out to take its place just 
inside the captured redans, it brought along several 
wheelbarrows full of snowballs, and a number of spades. 
Reddy detailed some men to chip the redans with the 
spades j to make balls of ice out of the frozen part, and 
ordinary ammunition out of the softer snow inside. To 
fight with these ice-balls was hardly fair j but while one 
or two of Heady’s men were scratched with them, they 
shot them back with interest, and, being protected by the 
walls, inflicted so much damage on Reddy’s men that 
Reddy soon gave orders to use no more of such boomer- 
angs on the enemy. 

After some cautious feeling of the way and several at- 
tempts to draw out a heavy fire from the fort on a few 
skirmishers, Reddy saw that his brother had provided 
too much ammunition to be much weakened by such 
maneuvers. 

The commander of the fort viewed with grief the dem- 
olition of the redans he had built with so much pains, 
and sent out a strong force under the command of Jumbo 
and Sawed-Off. But Reddy had a presence of mind like 
Hannibal’s, and ordered his right wing to fall back. 
This deluded the two colonels into thinking they were 
winning an easy victory, when, to their amazement and 
horror, they saw Reddy’s left wing sweeping round to 
cut them off at the rear. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


73 


Colonel Sawed-Off gave the quick command, “To the 
rear— march ! Double-time ! ” but met the brunt of the 
onset before he could get inside the walls. 

He saw Jumbo slip and fall, and three of the enemy 
pounce on him to drag him away. Sawed-Off leaped for 
them, sent them sprawling, and, laying hold of Jumbo, 
fought his way single-handed through the enemy with 
his right fist, and managed to drag his chum inside the 
gate of the fort just before it closed with a snap. 

Half of the two companies that had made the bril- 
liant attack were left as prisoners in the enemy’s hands. 
The defenders’ forces were thus reduced to thirty privates. 

Heady now felt justified in ordering two or three of his 
most accurate sharp-shooters to keep their eye on General 
Reddy, and to pick him off, if possible. In consequence, 
when General Reddy led a fiery charge against the fort, 
a snowball took him in the left eye ; and before he could 
see what had struck him, another snowball closed his 
right optic, and he fell over backward, and was dragged 
to safety by his panic-stricken followers. 

This infuriated him so much that as soon as he could 
see daylight again, he said a few fiery words to his men, 
and ordered a grand movement on the works. He was 
speechless with rage when he had the same eye-closing 
operation worked on him again, and found himself 
blinded at the very foot of the enemy’s walls. Worse 
yet, when he came to his senses back in the redan, they 
told him that one of his men had perished nobly on the 
field of honor. 


74 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Colonel Sleepy had brought his men up to the right 
angle of the fort, and was too lazy to retreat, preferring 
to stay there and fight his way over the walls 5 but just 
as he had some chance of scaling them, a gigantic snow- 
ball loomed up and fell on him. When the two of them 
struck ground it was hard to tell which was which. 
There was not much of Sleepy to be seen but a hand and 
a nose and a foot or two. His men fled in terror, and a 
mere corporal’s guard rushed quickly out of the fort, and 
rolled him inside the walls. There they picked him out of 
the snowball, discovered they had captured a colonel, and 
informed him that he was a prisoner. They prepared to 
tie his hands and feet, but when he told them he was 
perfectly willing to remain quiet just as he was, they 
knew him well enough to believe him, and accepted his 
parole. And he began to take more pleasure than ever 
out of the battle, being now only a spectator, and from a 
choice position. 

Reddy’s army was sadly demoralized. The colonels 
could not get the men to keep a good line when they 
moved on the works, or to keep that line closed up. 

Brigadier-General Tug now led a vicious assault on the 
left salient of the fort; but being repulsed there, swung 
round to the right and made a quick lunge to the center. 
Some of his shots struck the flagpole, which was only a 
fishing-rod in times of peace, and the pine-tree standard 
broke and toppled outside. There was great dismay inside 
the fort, and greater surprise when who should leap over 
the walls but Orderly History— the despised History! 


REDDY’S WAR-MAP. 



5 


76 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


He caught up the flagstaff, and handed it to a soldier on 
the wall just before Tug’s men leaped on him and hustled 
him away as a prisoner. It was a noble sacrifice, and 
Heady said feelingly : 

“You can’t always sometimes most generally tell before- 
hand what any man ’s going to be worth in battle ! ” 

Nevertheless, when Reddy sent an offer to exchange 
Orderly History for Colonel Sleepy, Heady sent back a 
contemptuous reply to the effect that he could well afford 
to lose History, and did not care to make any exchange, 
much as Reddy evidently needed Sleepy. 

Reddy was so mad with rage and humiliation that he 
ate a half-dozen snowballs, more or less, before he knew 
what he was doing ; and then he had a stomach-ache, like 
Napoleon’s at Waterloo. And he weakly consented to 
postpone further battle until Saturday morning. 

That night at the dinner-table the opposing general felt 
called upon to crack a few jokes at the expense of Reddy, 
who sat opposite him, with no appetite for the well-cooked 
beefsteak on his plate, and no pride in the two pieces of 
raw steak that were to be bound on his black eyes. He 
left the table in a huff, vowing revenge and terrible 
defeat on the morrow; and he sat up late that night 
planning new stratagems on a war-map he had drawn. 

Saturday morning Reddy, breathing fire, ordered a 
determined charge to be made on the left salient of 
Heady’s fort, and, to make sure of success, sent into it 
every available man. But the fort was so high that 
though his men fought their way through a rain of mis- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


77 


siles, they could not climb the walls and get inside. So 
Reddy ordered a leisurely retreat, that he might prepare 
for a hit of grand tactics. 

As Reddy’s army returned to its base, he was horrified 
to see that his brother had made another sortie. The 
fort’s ammunition was getting low, and the sight of sev- 
eral wheelbarrows full of snowballs in Reddy’s right 
redan was too tempting to resist. He had sent Jumbo 
and Sawed-Off out again with a picked body of intrepid 
warriors. They made a sharp dash for the redan, and, 
while six of them trundled the barrows speedily back to 
the fort, the rest covered them, and resisted what little 
attack Reddy could organize in time. 

Reddy now brought into play plan No. 1. He called 
his colonels together and gave them a few brief instruc- 
tions, which they doled out to their men. And now his 
army moved out in two long lines. It went as far as was 
safe, quite deliberately ; then, on entering the zone of fire, 
broke into double-time. Reddy’s brother noticed that 
the first line was only lightly armed, soon spent its ammu- 
nition, and then ran low to the ground. Observing this 
curious action, he suspected some dark plot, and ordered 
his men to hold their fire. 

Reddy’s first line reached the fort untouched, dropped 
to its knees, and bent its backs turtle-fashion. On this 
platform the second line leaped, and delivered a furious 
volley right in the faces of the defenders. This was 
answered by a return volley of equal force. But in the 
teeth of this, Reddy’s men began to scale the walls. 


78 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Now Heady gave a command with a wild yell, and four 
huge, waiting snowballs were sent flying up the sapling 
tracks. They smote Reddy’s line irresistibly, and bowled 
the enemy over like ninepins, carrying them clear to the 
ground, and almost breaking the backs of the turtles 
below. 

Reddy reorganized his lines, and called another coun- 
cil of war. There was a furious debate. Time was get- 
ting short, and every plan he could devise seemed to be 
met with superior skill by his brother. After dropping 
many schemes, he said : 

“Men, the only way that fort can be taken is by an 
attack from the rear and the front at the same time.” 

“ But no one can climb that cliff at the back, especially 
in winter,” said Brigadier Tug. 

“Well, I ’m going to try it,” cried General Reddy, and 
he called for volunteers. Almost every one responded 
zealously, eager to risk anything for victory. Out of 
these Reddy picked a handful of brave spirits. Under 
cover of an assault all along the line, they stole away 
down the gully, and around to a place about half-way up 
the precipice. 

Here he led his men inch by inch. They dared not 
speak aloud, and hardly dared to fall, for fear the noise 
would alarm the enemy at the top. They hardly dared 
to fall for another reason, and that was because of the 
dizzy height. But this latter reason was not so strong in 
their hearts as the former. 

So they climbed, seizing a root here, digging a foothold 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


79 


there with a knife, stepping across great gaps their legs 
could barely span, climbing on hands and knees, brush- 
ing snow away from some sharp, cold rock, gripping it 
fiercely, and drawing themselves up on it with terrible 
effort. Thus they climbed and climbed, and many a time 
Reddy slipped and fell backward, to be caught and saved 
by the men behind him just before his weight pushed 
them all over. 

The men carried pouches full of snowballs swung at 
their backs, and these were an added hindrance j but they 
were necessary. At the place where they had begun the 
climb, Reddy had left a man, another was stationed half- 
way to the redans, and behind one of the redans was 
waiting a third. This was to be the telegraph-line. 
After an agony of climbing, Reddy found himself 
almost at the top of the cliff, and on a little ledge where 
he could gather his regiment, and where he could hear 
the voices of the men in the fort. Heady had no 
thought of danger from the seemingly impregnable rear, 
and would not waste a sentinel on it. This was just the 
mistake made by the French at Quebec. 

Reddy now took out a pocket-mirror and flashed a 
heliographic signal to the next station, and this signal 
was passed along to the redan where the regiment under 
Brigadier Tug was waiting. Tug immediately gave a 
loud command, and with a wild cry the whole long line of 
his troops charged fiercely upon the fort. 

The turtleback was worked again, and the defenders 
had no more huge snowballs to meet it with. But they 


80 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


took the shock bravely, none the less, and there was a 
pretty hand-to-hand combat there at the edge of the 
walls. 

In the midst of their defense, however, they heard a 
mad yell behind them, and could not resist the tempta- 
tion to turn, and could not control the panic they felt on 
seeing General Reddy and a regiment of the enemy 
appearing at a place where they had thought none but 
birds or moles could arrive. Instinctively, many of them 
whirled about to meet this attack, and on the instant 
many of Tug’s men were over the walls. General Reddy 
leaped upon General Heady, and cried: 

“We ’re in! Now surrender ! ” 

But Heady was not born with red hair for nothing, and 
he howled : 

“ Surrender nothin’ ! You ’re in, but we ’ll put you 
out again!” 

He yelled to his men to oust the invaders, and there 
ensued a general wrestling-match. 

Reddy and Heady were of the sort of brothers that are 
always fighting, in spite of their affection, and it was no 
new thing to see them wrestling desperately ; so the army 
returned to its task, keeping out those that were out, and 
trying to throw out the intruders. Reddy flung his 
brother to the ground, but his brother rolled him over. 
Then he was himself whirled under. So they wrestled 
on the hard, snowy ground, trampled on by their own 
men, and lost sight of in a wholesale scrimmage. 

At length they had struggled to the very rim of the 



REDDY AND HEADY AT THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF. 

































































t 






/ 






































































✓ 


















THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


83 


cliff, and Heady managed by a sudden wriggle to throw 
Reddy over the edge, where he hung, clinging for dear 
life to his brother’s coat. 

Heady was as wild as any wildcat, and he gasped : 
u Surrender, or I ’ll drop you over the cliff ! ” 

But Reddy was one of those that die rather than sur- 
render, and he only muttered : 
u If I go, you go with me ! ” 

Then the mad little fools began to struggle again on 
the very brink of the precipice ; and, finally, Reddy was 
dragging Heady over inch by inch, and could gain no 
foothold himself. Then a sudden wave of the battle 
going on above them brushed them off like flies. 


y 


'TER the two commanders had been swept over the 



ii edge of the precipice, the soldiers whom they had so 
ably generaled fought on furiously for the citadel. Only 
about half of General Reddy’s attacking forces had been 
able to get in, and they were having a very hard time of 
it staying in, when suddenly Colonel Sawed-Off observed 
in dismay that his doughty General had disappeared. The 
rest of the defenders observed it at the same time, and a 
panic followed. 

But just at this very moment the attacking army dis- 
covered that its noble leader had also turned up missing, 
and it was smitten with equal confusion. The bravest 
army becomes a mob without a leader ; every hero turns 
coward, and gets in the way of every other hero turned 
coward. 

So now a curious thing befell these two mighty hosts. 
The defenders of the fort, thinking their General slain or 
dragged off to perish in a dungeon, began to plead for 
mercy. At the same time the attacking party, without 
pausing to study what kind of evaporation could have 


84 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


85 


carried off their leader, began also to plead for mercy, 
and to scramble for home and safety. 

With both parties trying to surrender, naturally 
neither succeeded, and the battle ended in as perfect a 
draw as ever was drawn. 

The deep wonderment at the disappearance of the Gen- 
erals now found time to assert itself. Jumbo, having 
scoured the hillside, the retreating enemy, the trees, the 
clouds, and the blue sky with a piercing gaze, at length 
glanced idly over the cliff, not that he expected to see 
anything there, but because there was no place else to 
look. He was so astounded at what he saw that he 
would probably have jumped overboard had the ever- 
present Sawed-Off not caught him by the arm. 

Those of you who have lived long enough and traveled 
far enough may at some place have seen that wonderful 
sight: a hat-rack with an overcoat hung on it. If you 
can remember how that coat looked, you will have a 
fairly good picture of the heroic appearance of these two 
famous Generals. 

When the twins were pushed over the edge of the cliff, 
Reddy went first, pulling Heady after him. They shot 
down at a sickening velocity, and seemed to be u checked 
through” for the rocks at the foot of the cliff. After 
scorching down the air thus for a few minutes,— as it 
seemed to them,— Reddy struck the top branches of an 
old tree growing in a gash in the cliff. They broke the 
force of his fall, but he could not stop till Heady, who 
was following after like a dutiful brother, came crashing 


86 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


after him. Their four arms caught over a stout lower 
bough, and there they hung like two Kilkenny cats over 
a clothes-line. 

They were brought up with a suddenness that nearly 
shook their eyebrows loose, and there they stuck. And 
since their arms were strong, and he and Reddy had a 
good grip on each other when they fell, they were safe 
for the moment. 

And there they hung, too scared to speak or cry out, 
unable to see above, and afraid to look below, and won- 
dered how long they could hang. 

When Tug and Jumbo saw their two Generals waving 
in air o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave, 
it did not take them long to determine what steps were 
necessary for relief. The twins were caught in a place 
where the cliff was so sheer that it was impossible for 
them to gain a footing or to climb back to safety as 
Reddy had climbed up to the fort. Plainly, the only way 
to save them was to rope them in. 

While the rest of the fellows were shouting encourage- 
ment to the exhausted Generals below, Tug and Quiz, 
who were both good runners, set off for a neighboring 
farm-house at the top of their speed. There they did not 
stop to say, u By your leave, madam ! ” but cut down two 
or three clothes-lines, while the farmer’s wife tried in vain 
to “ sick ” a large but sleepy dog on them. 

Then they decided that the clothes-lines would be too 
weak, and went to the old-fashioned well and cut loose 
the cable, dragged it up dripping, and started back for 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


87 


the fort. They would have run as fast as they could, 
anywayj but the fact that the farmer and his two sons 
came after them with pitchforks made them run even 
faster than they could. They finally reached the fort, 
panting and exhausted, and while the rest of the boys 
took care of the farmers, hastened to turn over the rope 
to the rescuers. 

This was tied under the arms of Bobbles, who had 
insisted upon the privilege of making the descent. The 
huge Sawed-Off appointed himself anchor, and a line of 
other men formed behind him to steady the rope. Bob- 
bles was let down as rapidly as possible, and soon 
appeared, like a rescuer from the skies, at the side of the 
twins. 

Each wanted him to take the other up first, and they 
came near letting go and resuming the battle ; but Bob- 
bles snatched Reddy out of the fray. The first ascent 
was made 'without difficulty, and Bobbles was lowered 
away again. He got a good grip upon the absolutely 
exhausted Heady, and signaled for the men above to 
heave away. They were brought up with a jerk and a 
long pull and a strong pull and a pull all together; 
then the rope began to creak ominously, and in one place 
a sharp rock caught it and began to gnaw it. 

Desperately Bobbles watched that rope, and begged it 
to hold out. Desperately he clung to the jaded Heady. 
Seeing the sure failure of the cable, Tug dropped down 
to the first ledge and tried to ease it where it was fray- 
ing. Even the rotten old rope seemed to grit its own 


88 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


strands together, and it managed to eke its strength 
out until it had its double burden over the ledge. Then 
it parted with a thump, and all its work would have been 
in vain, and the two would have gone over backward, 
had not Tug steadied them and saved their balance. 

The terror of the ordeal sent the three boys home very 
faint and badly bruised. Neither Reddy nor Heady had 
won the battle,— I mean, both had won it,— so honors 
were even, and peace was declared. 

And thus ended one of the greatest battles of modern 
times ! 


VI 

T HEN came more snow, and the hill of the Hawk’s 
Nest was once more white and slippery. Now that 
it had been brought into such prominence, it suddenly 
dawned upon all Lakerim that it was as magnificent a 
spot for the peaceful delights of coasting as for the grim 
game of war. 

Sleepy and Quiz were struck with an idea— a thing that 
occurred to them about once a year. They decided to 
introduce into the benighted town of Lakerim the foreign 
luxury of the toboggan. They determined to make this 
toboggan themselves. 

About this time they read one of those beautiful arti- 
cles that teach boys how to make things at home. As 
usual with these articles, it required only the skill of a 
regular mechanic and twice as much money as the article 
would cost at any store. 

But Sleepy and Quiz were undeterred. At a lumber- 
yard they found, and purchased at great expense, a long, 
broad plank. After trying to smooth it for themselves, 
and succeeding only in dulling the blades of the plane of 
an indignant carpenter, and gouging the board almost 

89 


90 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


beyond recognition, they concluded to have this done by 
the carpenter. After an experiment or two they also had 
a blacksmith make them a couple of flat iron runners. 

It only remained to curl up the head of the toboggan. 
This was a very simple thing to do— according to the 
article, which said that all you had to do was to steam it. 

Quiz and Sleepy knew very little about steaming lum- 
ber, and after much pondering, decided that it consisted 
in pouring boiling water on the wood. So one bitter- 
cold night they brought the board out to Sleepy’s kitchen 
door, and poured upon it three kettlefuls of boiling water. 
It froze almost as soon as it struck. Then they got down 
on their knees, and pulled and tugged at the refractory 
plank, which showed about as much inclination to curl as 
Sleepy’s hair did. Pull and wrench as they would, the 
board clung to its beautiful flatness. 

At length Quiz looked at Sleepy and said : 

“ I don’t think much of tobogganing.” 

And Sleepy looked at Quiz and said : 

“ It ’s all out of style, anyway.” 

So they bade each other good night and went home to bed. 

And that was the end of tobogganing at Lakerim. 

The rest of the boys never knew what a surprise they 
missed when this great Toboggan Trust went bankrupt. 
They found compensation, however, in the old-time coast- 
ing of their fathers. But their acquaintance with the 
Hawk’s Nest left them dissatisfied with the hills that had 
in previous winters given them so much delight. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


91 


Coasting-tracks that had been thought steep and long 
now looked tame and puny. 

Finally, Bobbles, who was the best coaster of the 
Dozen, got them together, and led them out to the Hawk’s 
Nest, dragging their twelve sleds after them. They trudged 
through the thickets, floundered through the snow-drifts, 
and made a careful survey of the whole territory. 

Bobbles planned a course to perfect which required 
just a half-day’s work, and they fell to it with a will. It 
was necessary to take out a section of the rail fence, and 
hide the rails where the farmers could not find them and 
put them back, clear away the brush and undergrowth, 
move a few sharp rocks out of the path, and build a 
bridge or two of stone and snow. When this was done 
there was a right royal hippodrome. It started from the 
fort, and included all sorts of tests of sledding skill, from 
long inclines to sudden descents, from great arcs to sharp 
swerves, from heavy tracks of sodden snow to the glassy 
channel of the little brook. There were ravines to cross 
on narrow tracks ; there were hurdles to jump, and little 
unbridged gaps to overleap $ there was even one hill to 
climb with the impetus gained before j there was a loop 
to make around a little knoll, and then, at the last, a giddy 
declivity that shot down for a long run out on the lake. 
As the hawk, whose nest gave his name to the promontory, 
would have swooped from the beginning of the course to 
the end thereof, it would have been a good half-mile. 
With all the turns and windings and doublings back upon 
the path, it was three times the distance. 


92 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


The Dozen were rapturous over their new course, and 
believed that nothing in the world had ever been so tine. 
They felt no envy for the joys of bird-life or the speed of 
express-trains, and spent on the course all the time they 
could get, legitimately or otherwise, from school hours. 
It was even so dear to them that they did not begrudge 
the long, long climb they had to pay in advance for the 
short luxury of the descent; this is the final test of a 
coasting-place. 

Sledding with these boys was something more than 
starting off, trusting to reach the bottom and letting the 
sled do the rest. Some had as fine and scientific theories 
about the building and the best lines of a sled as any 
Herreshoff about the lines of a yacht. They would not 
leave the matter to the choice of their parents, and take 
any sled they happened to find in their stockings Christ- 
mas morning. They argued over their pet models, and 
rode hobbies in sled-manufacture with more ardor than 
they ever discussed the Magna Charta or the Emancipation 
Proclamation. At the stores they drove the dealers almost 
crazy with their fine points on sled-architecture, and had 
out everything on runners in the town for inspection. 

The most scientific of them all was Bobbles. Coasting 
with him was a serious business— an art. His sled was a 
beautiful sylph ! —long and slim, yet stout and low. It 
was not painted with the disgraceful curlicues and hideous 
scenery usually put on sleds. The natural grain of the 
wood was just varnished and left in its own beauty. The 
only painting on it was the name, and this was in small 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


93 


letters on the inside of one of the runners, where it would 
not be seen. That name was “ Betsy.” 

There was only one girl in town that had that name, 
and it may have been only a coincidence, for Bobbles had 
not told her that it was on the sled, and he was always 
very much flustered and embarrassed in her presence. 
He was more at ease with any of the girls than with her. 

And yet he always chose her as his partner when his own 
sled carried double ; and when he steered the long bob- 
sled full of girls and boys down the hill, he always made 
her sit next to him, and advised her to hold on to him 
very tight. 

But after a number of mishaps on the Hawk’s Nest 
course the girls began to fight shy of the place, and left 
the boys to contests of skill and speed among themselves. 
Bobbles almost always won when there was no accident, 
and he was generally looked on as the champion coaster 
of Lakerim. 

When, then, as a final wind-up of the season of snow, 
he proposed a grand race, they insisted that it should be 
a handicap, and that he should be the scratch man. He 
modestly said that he knew they could beat him, but he 
made no objections to the outrageous handicap imposed 
upon him. The order in which they were placed at the 
start was this : 

At the scratch stood the champion, Bobbles, with 
u Betsy.” Five yards down the course stood Tug, with a 
good low sled ; and five yards farther was Punk, also well 
equipped. At the 15-yard line Jumbo and Sawed-Off 


94 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


waited for the signal. They did not belong in the same 
class, but refused to be separated. At the 25-yard line 
B. J. stood, as nervous as one of the desperados in his 
dime novels, when the all-powerful hero has a bead on 
him. His noble steed was named the u Red Rover,” and 
it was as black as one of the “ low, rakish crafts ” his pet 
pirates sailed in. Two and one half yards farther down, 
Pretty was waiting, with a gorgeously painted sled cov- 
ered with flowers and bluebirds. 

At the 35-yard mark Reddy and Heady were stationed, 
with sleds that could not be told apart. At forty yards was 
Quiz. Almost invisible in the distance was Sleepy, lean- 
ing against a tree with a heavy wooden contrivance at his 
feet. Its runners were all rusty, and he had hired a small 
boy to tote it up the hill for him. He paid the boy with 
a knife,— when he got to the top of the hill,— and then 
the boy discovered that one of its blades was broken. 
Quite invisible from the starting-point was History, with 
fifty yards to his advantage. His sled was a high, rickety 
affair with wickerwork runners. 

The regulations of the course could be summarized 
something like this : 

Each man was to stand as far back from his starting- 
point as he wished. At the first shot of a pistol he was to 
run forward, and at the second plump himself on his sled 
at the mark. Two shots in quick succession were to mean 
a false start, and a return for a re-trial. Inspectors were 
placed at each of the starting-points, except History’s, 
which was out of sight around the cliff. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


95 


At the first shot Bobbles, who stood far back of the 
scratch-line, dashed forward so zealously that he failed to 
discover a stone in the way, and tripped. Two shots rang 
out, and brought back the contestants, much to Sleepy’s 
disgust, and to the entire indifference of History, who was 
too much absorbed in thinking about some puzzling big 
words to notice the recall. He sat himself down cross- 
legged on the back of his sled, and went serenely on his 
way. 

On the second start the men got off beautifully. Bob- 
bles made a long, swift run, and flung himself and his sled 
to the ground with a beautiful impetus. For a few yards 
from the starting-point the grade was easy. Then the 
track ran out on a ridge where one of the redans had been. 
It dropped suddenly down the ravine. 

There Bobbles flew past a pair of heels which he recog- 
nized as Sleepy’s, for that wide-awake knight had drifted 
head foremost into a deep snowbank. Perhaps he thought 
it looked like a feather-bed. When he extricated himself, 
he resumed his place on his sled, and struggled on at the 
tail of the procession. 

Bobbles saw Sleepy’s plight without regret, and, like the 
Count of Monte Cristo, simply murmured : “ One ! ” 

Tug and Punk had passed Jumbo and Sawed-Off, and 
when Bobbles shot over one of the snow arches that 
bridged the deep ditch, he came up with the misfit chums. 
These two had cooked up a scheme to prevent Bobbles’ 
winning the race. They tried an old jockey trick, and 
with Jumbo a little ahead, and Sawed-Off just at his side, 


96 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Bobbles found himself tightly boxed, and unable to pass 
either. He expressed his opinion of such a maneuver in 
very vigorous language 5 but the two conspirators simply 
laughed at him and guyed him. These “ Three Muske- 
teers ” jogged along together thus at a fine rate until they 
passed Pretty, whose sled was too handsome to go very 
fast. Bobbles gave him only a glance, and put him in the 
catalogue of defeated competitors, with the one word, 
“ Two ! ” 

A sharp swish round a sharp curve unhorsed Punk, 
who had been going beautifully ; and he barely managed 
to roll out of the way before they ran him down. His 
empty sled bounded along like a runaway till it banged 
into a boulder, and lost one runner. 

And Punk made Three. 

The course now entered the glassy surface of the brook, 
and the sleds bowled along like a winter wind. To make 
sure that the cage in which they kept Bobbles should not 
be broken, Sawed-Off reached out one of his long arms, 
and hung on to Jumbo’s sled. 

Bobbles howled, “ Foul ! ” u Murder ! ” and “ Police ! ” 
in furious rage ; but the trio were hid in the channel of 
the brook from the sight of any of the judges 5 and 
Sawed-Off and Jumbo almost fell off their sleds with 
snickering. 

A little farther on, the brook grew very shallow, and 
went over a bed of stones, so that the race-course had to 
make a quick turn to the right. The turn was too quick 
for B. J. He was pretending he was a noble Western 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


97 


scout, with a beautiful white lady, whom he had rescued 
from the Indians, seated behind him on a swift mustang. 
This distracted his attention, and he found himself and 
his mustang jolting and scraping among the jagged stones. 
When he came to himself, and got back to the course, one 
runner— I should say, one leg of his bronco— was broken, 
and he could only yell his encouragement to the three 
boon companions, Jumbo and Sawed-Off and the captive 
Bobbles. 

11 Four ! ” said Bobbles. 

Looking past the legs of Jumbo, Bobbles descried Quiz 
loping along ahead. Quiz was asking himself how long 
he could keep up his splendid speed, when he saw ahead 
of him a gap in the road. He tried to leap it, but was 
lying too far back on his sled, and slammed against the 
opposite edge, and fell backward. He had read of a boy 
that lay flat on the railroad-track while an express-train 
passed harmlessly above him. So he remained where he 
lay, and saw the three sleds leap over him and take the 
ditch beautifully. 

Bobbles’ toe almost took off Quiz’ nose, but he only 
looked down at his prostrate rival, and mentally cut an- 
other notch on an imaginary stick. 

The Fifth man was out of the way. 

Bobbles ran along with his unwelcome escorts, and 
thought he never should shake loose from them. Just as 
he had determined on the desperate ruse of applying the 
brake,— that is, dragging his heel along the snow,— and 
letting the two rivals get on ahead, so that he could extricate 


98 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


himself and try to pass them on the outside, a log hove in 
sight. Sawed-Off balked at this hurdle, his runners jabbed 
into it, and he floundered off to one side. Jumbo lifted 
the head of his sled, just at the right moment, and bounded 
over, with Bobbles at his heels. Instead of going on with 
the race, however, Jumbo ran himself into a buffer of a 
snow-drift, and went back to see what was the matter with 
Sawed-Off. 

Bobbles, finding that his bitter foes were thus dispersed, 
found himself at Sixes and Sevens. 

This left four more men to beat, and a glance at the 
surrounding country showed him that he was coming into 
the last quarter of the track. Now that he was free from 
the hindrance of Jumbo, he sailed along at his old speed. 
The course soon returned to the brook for a stretch of 
about a hundred yards. Just before he turned into it 
he saw Tug’s hind foot disappearing around the curve. 
When he came out on the ice there was as pretty a con- 
test as a body could wish to see. 

Bobbles gained slowly but surely upon the fleeting Tug, 
and when they had reached the loop he was within a yard 
or two of Tug’s heels. This annoying little distance he 
cut down as they swept round the circle, until at the end 
of the loop he was almost alongside. Then he bethought 
him of the trick of the chariot-drivers, and seeing a chance 
to make a slight gain, tried to cut inside Tug’s course ; 
but, by a slight miscalculation, he drove the prow of his 
sled into his rival’s rudder, and swung him off his path 
until the enraged Tug could only save himself from jam- 


fSr 



BOBBLES LEAVES THE CONSPIRATORS BEHIND. 









































» 


4 






























» 





\ 








































THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


101 


ming into an oak-tree by going clear round the loop once 
more. 

Tug was furious over bis misfortune, but be was not a 
cry-baby, and would not report tbe foul to tbe judges. 

Bobbles could not stop to tbink bow far be bad driven 
tbe Eigbtb man aside, for the next curve brought on bis 
horizon tbe twins. They were going it neck and neck, 
each one trying to kick tbe other off bis sled, and tbe 
other challenging each to get off and fight. They were too 
much engaged in these brotherly exchanges of courtesy to 
pay much heed to their coasting, and when they reached 
the hill they had very little impetus to take them up it. 

Their sleds slackened up on the ascent, and, with what 
B. J. would have called “one fell swoop,” Bobbles was 
upon them. 

But Bobbles 7 delight over this sudden gain was dimin- 
ished when his own fiery charger began to slow up. All 
the terrific speed he had gathered on the preceding mile 
was lost in a sudden inclination of his steed to turn into 
a snail. It began to look as if he would never reach the 
top of the hill, and he wiggled and squirmed despairingly. 
The ardor of his flight barely managed to live until he had 
crept to the last inch of the ascent, and there it flickered 
out. He was, however, so well up that the ends of his 
runners stuck out beyond the edge, and by sliding his 
weight forward he was able to bend the sled over and re- 
sume the race. 

Reddy and Heady were stalled hopelessly just six inches 
from the beginning of the long stretch down to the lake. 


102 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


They slid off their sleds into each other’s arms, and pro- 
ceeded to pommel and kick until both had just breath 
enough to exclaim : 

“ ’Nough ! ” 

But to Bobbles, speeding onward, they were only Nine 
and Ten. 

All of his rivals were left in the lurch save History, and 
Bobbles looked in contempt at the puny rival ahead. 

But History was going down the long steep of the 
home stretch, and could see the girls waiting anxiously in 
the distance. He was the most surprised of them all that 
he was in the lead. He gave one glance back at Bobbles 
rushing down upon him, and shifted his position to as 
good an imitation of Bobbles as he could make. His 
sleigh leaped forward with a gain of speed that scared him 
half to death. But as it would have been more risky to 
drop off than to stick on, he had nothing to do but to fight 
it out. 

Meanwhile Bobbles was making a beautiful race. He 
lay out on his left side with the left leg curled up under 
him, and his right thrown out at the back as a rudder. 
His left arm stretched out along the left runner of his 
coaster. His speed grew with the steepness— or should I 
say “stepth” ?— of the mountain-side, and he flew along 
as swift as a gull in the wind. There was no resisting his 
skill and his speed, and he was soon almost neck and neck 
with History, for whom Nature and the law of gravity 
were doing more than their share. 

Fly as he would, wriggle as he would, however, Bobbles 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


103 


could not push past his despised rival. The shore of the 
lake and the finishing-line were only a few seconds away, 
and Bobbles grew sick at heart to think that he should be 
beaten or tied by— History above all ! It would have been 
hard enough if it had been Tug or Jumbo— but History ! 

There seemed to be no escaping this humiliation, how- 
ever, until History thought he had an inspiration. He 
determined to win the victory and cover himself with 
glory. He had never won an athletic prize. Now was 
his chance. He had a pair of skates slung round his 
shoulders, and his bulging pockets were filled with heavy 
school-books. These he quickly threw off into the snow, 
and flung after them even his spectacles, and dashed on, 
now unable to see ten feet before him. 

But History had never been a very brilliant student in 
physics, and his idea was his own undoing. For, by 
lightening his weight, he had also by just that much taken 
off the hold of his friend Gravity. Bobbles, being thus 
the gainer in comparative weight, had now the superior 
inertia. 

The law of gravity carried him just a little faster than 
History, and to his complete delight he found himself 
creeping past his despised and feared rival. History was 
a whole length to the rear when the race-course ran out on 
the lake. His sled struck a bump and slipped off to the 
left, and went out upon the lake far from the finishing- 
line. And when it finally stopped and he waited blindly 
for the expected ovation, he heard far off to one side the 
cheers that greeted Bobbles as he darted across the line 


104 


THE L AKE RIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


and won almost without competitors. For the others had 
either been compelled to take a second start, or had drifted 
in long after Bobbles. 

There was unlimited hilarity when Bobbles was pre- 
sented with the prize. Since everybody had expected him 
to win, and had prophesied his victory, everybody could 
tell everybody else, “ I told you so.” Accordingly, every- 
body was happy. 

But the very happiest of all was the girl Betsy, and 
Bobbles was so glad that she was so glad, that when no 
one was looking he lifted up the winning sled and showed 
her her name on the runner, and told her she was his 
mascot, and had really won the race. 

After the first joy of winning, Bobbles noted that Tug 
was a very bad second in the race. He began to think 
things over, and suddenly walked up to his disgruntled 
rival, stuck out the silver loving-cup they had given him 
for a prize, and said: “This belongs to you by rights, 
Tug. I guess I fouled you.” 

Immediately Tug’s anger vanished, and he said : “ G-et 
out, Bobbles ! You had me beaten anyway. You were 
right on my heels. I ’ll punch your head if you say any- 
thing more.” 

So Bobbles said nothing more. 

When Lakerim had beaten the proud students of the 
Charleston Academy so handily at hockey, they had 
promised to go over to Charleston and give their victims 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


105 


a chance to return the compliment. They were particu- 
larly anxious to do this because Charleston was city 
enough to support an inclosed skating-rink of artificial 
ice. This made it possible to charge an admission fee ? 
and as the Lakerim Athletic Club was out for money to 
build its club-house, it seized the first opportunity to 
descend like wolves upon the fold of the Charleston 
Academy. 

The first opportunity came on Washington’s Birthday, 
which was a holiday. The Dozen very wisely thought 
that the most patriotic thing any good American could 
do to celebrate the memory of that glorious victor was to 
win some battle from some enemy. 

The morning of the 22d of February found them 
ready for the journey. Several of the boys had built a 
large ice-boat, and had stepped into it a mast from a 
sloop owned by Bobbles’ father— and lent to the club 
by Bobbles while his father was out of town. This gave 
them a mainsail that was too big even for the big ice-boat, 
and caused its capsizing many a time. 

But the Dozen scorned such light things as bumped 
heads and ripped clothes, and scorned even to reef in the 
sail as it needed. 

The wind was light the morning these hardy mariners 
sailed, and they reached Charleston barely in time to keep 
a large and excited audience from demanding their money 
back. 

You have already read one long account of the way the 


106 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Lakerims played hockey, and yon need not fear another, 
it must suffice to say that practice had improved their 
team-play, as well as their individual skill, until they had 
no need to rely on luck for a victory. 

They won an exciting game by a score of 6 to 3, and 
started home with seventy-eight dollars and seventy-six 
cents as their share of the gate-receipts. 

When they came out of the rink, the afternoon was 
well advanced toward night, and a light snow was sifting 
down. The weather looked ominous, and a mean wind 
was running amuck through the streets of Charleston. 
The boys buttoned their overcoats tightly round their 
magnificent chests, and set out for the wharf at a brisk 
trot. 

There they found the ice-boat creaking under the wind 
and complaining to be off and home again. By the time 
they had made sail and worked well out into the lake, 
the snow was falling fast and thick, and the wind was 
whipping it so hard that the flakes stung like needles 
of ice. 

The wind swept the floor of the lake clean, but drove 
the snow in drifts against the banks. And B. J. was the 
skipper. 

The whirling snow hid the banks of the lake, and the 
black sky had never a star to guide the confused mari- 
ners. Things were beginning to look dark for the men, 
and they had long ceased whistling to keep up their 
courage. The wind was doing whistling enough for all 
of them, and its tune was not encouraging. 



“THE GALE THREATENED EVERY MOMENT TO TAKE THE MAST 

RIGHT OUT OF HER.” 



THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


109 


u Brrr ! ” said Tug. “ If we don’t get somewhere pretty 
soon, we ’re goners. Where are we, anyway, Captain ? ” 

B. J. was more aware of their danger than they, for he 
had completely lost his hearings. He took the compli- 
ment without any pleasure, and said as bravely as he 
could, “We should be passing Buzzard’s Rock about 
now.” 

Buzzard’s Rock was a little point of stone that stuck 
up in the middle of the lake, and had barely soil enough 
to hold the roots of a dead tree. It was the home of the 
ancient buzzard who gave the place its name. 

“If we get lost out here,” said Bobbles, “there ’ll be 
nothing to do but freeze ; and it won’t take much longer 
to do that.” 

B. J. ordered his crew to make another attempt to reef 
sail ; but the deck was so slippery, their speed was so dizzy, 
and their hands and arms were so numb with chill, that 
they had to give it up, though the gale threatened every 
moment to take the mast right out of her. 

All B. J. could do was to stick to the tiller, and hope 
to reach home before they froze, or the mast broke and 
left them out in a blizzard. 

One or two of the boys had already announced that 
they were no longer cold, but were very sleepy; and 
knowing what that meant, the rest of the boys were 
pounding them and pleading with them to keep them 
awake. Bobbles had just started to sing, with the idea 
that he might cheer up their flagging hearts, when out of 
the blackness ahead there loomed a deeper blackness. 


110 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


With a terrible crash and jar, the ice-boat struck and 
broke up, and the mast and sail went by the board. 

The shock was enough to waken the sleepiest of them 
from his lethargy j and when they had picked themselves 
up, doubly aching with cold and bruises, they made out 
the gnarled trunk of a dead tree. 

And Bobbles gave a ghostly cry : “ Buzzard’s Rock ! ” 


VII 

I F a great detective had seen seven boys huddling to- 
gether on the windward shore of a bleak rock in the 
middle of a lake and in the middle of the night and in 
the middle of a wild snow-storm and wind-storm and in 
the middle of the wreck of an ice-boat, it is “ dollars to 
crullers,” as B. J. said, that that great detective would 
come to the conclusion, after he had thought the matter 
over, that those seven boys were not out there on a picnic. 

To get at the real dialect spoken by those frigid young 
gentlemen it would be necessary to multiply all the conso- 
nants by five and divide the vowels by two. Or, as an 
organist might say, you must pull out the tremolo stop. 

But B. J. felt almost warm as he thought of some of 
his pet heroes, and murmured blissfully to himself: 
“ Wrecked on a desert isle ! ” 

“ T-t-t-to-morrow morning,” chattered Pretty, “ there ’ll 
be just seven icic— sick icicles left for our fathers and 
mothers to cry over ! ” 

“When a ship is in distress,” said B. J., “she always 
sends up rockets. Now if we only had some rockets—” 

ill 


112 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“Yes,” said Jumbo, scornfully; “or a Pullman palace- 
car to ride home in—” 

“Or if this Buzzard’s Rock here were only our new 
club-house, with a beautiful grate fire and all the com- 
forts of home ! ” Sawed-Off added. 

A more miserable crowd of young men was never seen 
on sea or land than this champion crew of hockey-players 
stranded on a lake in a snow-storm. At length Tug spoke 
up and said : 

“Well, instead of freezing here like a pack of fools, we 
might as well go round on the lee side of this rock and 
freeze comfortably.” 

Tug, however, who always preferred to do the hardest 
thing possible, did not go round on the ice, but clambered 
over the rock. Then he stumbled into a snow-drift that 
covered him up to his neck. He was too tired to climb 
out immediately. After resting there for a moment, he 
cried out delightedly : 

“ Geewhilikins, fellows ! It ’s almost warm in here ! ” 

From this accident he took an inspiration. Under his 
orders the comrades soon found the sail, which had blown 
against the ancient tree, and dragged it round to the lee 
of the rock. They found that the wind was mainly to 
blame for the cold, and that the quiet air was not alto- 
gether unbearable. 

Seeing that the rocks had obligingly split the ice-boat 
into kindling-wood, they made kindling-wood of it, and 
managed, after using up all of their matches, to get a fire 
going. This they replenished with brush and boughs 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


113 


broken from the old tree. Then they dug with then- 
hands a sort of oven in the great snow-drift, and spread- 
ing the sail inside for a combined sheet and comfort, 
crawled in feet first, so that their heads should be in the 
air j and drew the canvas as closely around them as they 
could. 

The snow and the sail and the warmth of their young 
blood, and the fact that they were packed together like 
sardines, made them feel almost as cozy as if they had 
been at home. And so they fell asleep. 

There were some fathers and mothers in Lakerim that 
did not sleep easily that night. There was nothing to do, 
however, but wait and worry until the morning. 

The first streaks of dawn wakened the Seven Sleepers 
to the fact that they were still alive. They crawled out 
of their warm bunk, clamped on the skates that had borne 
them to victory in the hockey game, and made ready to 
set out for home. 

Bobbles said that if his father came back to Lakerim 
and found the sail of his sloop not only borrowed but 
left behind on a deserted island, there would be trouble 
for at least one member of the Lakerim Athletic Club. 

So they decided, after much grumbling, that it would 
be necessary to take the sail along, as well as the mast 
from which they had stripped it. The burden was not 
so unwelcome when they were once more in the hands of 
the wind ; for they found that by spreading out in line 
and taking the heavy mast over their fourteen shoulders 
and letting part of the sail hang down behind, the wind 

7 


114 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


carried them along at a booming speed, without effort 
of their own. 

Thus they got home in time to break all records for 
buckwheat cakes. And the next day the Charlestonians 
sent them one hundred and forty-seven dollars as their 
share of the receipts. 

That storm was the last gasp of winter. By noon the 
sun had gained a glorious victory and was melting all 
the snow that had been so liberally piled up. Every day 
thereafter he strengthened his grip on the earth; and 
Spring came skipping in across the soggy ground. 


VIII 

M UDDY roads and cold spring winds had no terrors 
for one or two of the Lakerim bicycle maniacs. 
Quiz and Punk were the most rabid of these, and they 
hardly waited for the snow to leave the ground before 
they had their wheels out. During the winter, indeed, 
they had kept up practice in the empty loft of a huge barn, 
where they had tried every kind of caper and dido imagi- 
nable. 

Quiz was by all odds the best wheelman at Lakerim. 
He was light and lithe, and his thin legs were like steel. 
When he was in racing trim and curved far over the 
handle-bars, he was more like a human interrogation- 
point than ever. 

You will never get me to tell all the amazing things he 
could do with a bicycle. Without letting it fall, and 
without touching the ground, he could climb through it 
in almost every conceivable way except possibly through 
the spokes. He could sit it almost anywhere or anyhow. 
He could ride it backward— and even forward ! He could 
whirl the front wheel around as he rode, or ride with it 
in air like a rearing horse. 


115 


116 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Fat old men who tried in vain to conquer a bicycle 
looked upon Quiz as nothing short of a wizard. They 
picked themselves up out of the gutters and bramble- 
bushes, and from under the hoofs of horses they had tried 
to avoid with the usual result of making directly for 
them, and they decided that the bicycle was nothing but 
a boomerang— an infernal machine. Then they watched 
Quiz juggling with it as if it were a toy, and they could 
only think of lion-tamers and “ bronco-busters.” 

About this time the Lakerim Athletic Club began to 
wonder how it could earn more money. It was too early 
for track athletics, or for any of the summer games. 
Quiz suggested a bicycle race, but Sleepy grunted that 
no one would pay money for the privilege of sitting out 
on an open grand stand and shivering, for the best bicy- 
cle-riders in the world. Some indoor amusement must 
be provided, if people were to be separated from their 
money. After considering many schemes, and finding 
that they were all of the church-sociable order, Quiz 
jumped as if some one had run a pin into him. 

“ I ’ll tell you what—” he began. 

“Well, what?” asked the others. 

“ Let ’s get up a bicycle-polo game and challenge the 
Charleston Academy.” 

a But none of us can play bicycle polo,” commented 
Sleepy. 

“Punk and I can,” Quiz answered. “We have been 
practising all winter, and I ’m sure we can give a couple 
of those Charlestonians a lively evening ! ” 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


117 


u Well, where do the rest of us come in?” said Tug. 

u Oh, you may come in at the front door— if you have 
the price,” said Quiz, coolly. 

At Charleston the inclosed ice-rink that had seen the 
hockey contest had now been turned into a roller-skating 
rink, and the smooth floor of this was selected for the 
bicycle-polo game. 

The prowess of the Lakerim athletes had grown into 
sudden prominence among the neighboring cities. This 
fact, and the fact that bicycle polo was a novelty, brought 
out so large a crowd of Charlestonians that Quiz and Punk 
both vowed they would win the greater part of the receipts, 
or perish nobly in the attempt. 

Some genius had discovered that if he would give the 
wheel of his bicycle a sudden jerk, it would propel a polo- 
ball in any direction desired. The game of polo for 
bicycles was the result— a game in which an expert rider 
could take a very lively part, and yet be saved by his skill 
from anything worse than a collision that might buckle 
his wheel or take out a few spokes. These are damages 
that can be repaired without great expense, though they 
necessitate having extra bicycles for the luckless players. 
Rough riding and intentional jostling are, of course, for- 
bidden by the rules. 

The goals are two small boxes placed at each end of the 
rink. In the front of each box is an open space through 
which the polo-ball, if driven correctly, enters and rings a 
small bell. It is against the rules to drive the ball with 
hand or foot or anything but the wheel. 


118 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Shortly before the beginning of the game, Punk and 
Quiz rode into the rink and circled it several times to get 
the “ lay of the land / 7 

Punk was goal-keeper for Lakerim, and Quiz was out- 
rider or forward. The Charleston forward was named 
Boggs, and the goal-keeper’s name it was called Haddock. 

The four men mounted their wheels and rode about as 
cautiously as they could until the referee gave the com- 
mand to play. The polo-ball was placed in the center of 
the rink, and at the command, Punk, who had won the 
toss, made a dash for the ball and gave it a smart shot, 
intending to send it a little to the right of the opposing 
forward. 

With a quick dart, however, Boggs got his front wheel 
far enough up to return it with interest. It scuttered 
past Quiz, who had followed closely after it, and fell prey 
to Punk, who sent it back to the left near Quiz. 

Quiz and Boggs each made beautifully short turns, and 
went for the ball, neck and neck. They reached it at the 
same time, and struck at it again, the result being that 
they sprawled in opposite directions, while the ball went 
joyously on until Haddock fed it back to Boggs, who had 
remounted instantly. 

Boggs got it safely past Quiz, and bowled it along 
merrily toward Punk. Punk watched it coming as he had 
watched many a base-ball sailing straight across the plate. 

As the boys said, Punk had a “ good eye,” and just at 
the proper time he swung his front wheel, caught the 
polo-ball, and batted it back the way it had come. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


119 


Here Quiz took it and sent it farther on its way rejoic- 
ing, and followed it wildly. 

Haddock stopped it with his rear wheel just before it 
made the goal. He was so placed, however, that he could 
not get back to it with his front wheel j but he held him- 
self steady until Quiz was alongside. After some wob- 
bling, both had to ride away and leave the polo-ball on 
the threshold of the goal. Boggs was the first one to 
reach it, and he coaxed it swiftly down the rink. 

Punk went out to meet him. With a neat turn, Boggs 
evaded him completely, and with a sharp jerk of his 
front wheel sent the ball tinkling into the goal— which 
caused several hundred Charlestonians to behave in a 
most undignified manner. 

Score: Charleston— one goal 5 Lakerim— none. 

Once more the ball was put in the center, and once 
more it was harried back and forth, this side and that, in 
a way much pleasanter to see than to read about. It was 
not long before Punk had let the ball pass him for two 
more goals, thanks to his slowness in covering ground. 
And Quiz realized with bitterness that if the day were 
to be saved, he must play for two men. 

Now, there was in the audience a Lakerim girl who was 
attending a seminary in Charleston. During the summer 
vacations it was always she that occupied the seat of 
honor on Quiz’ tandem. She was very pretty, but was 
very plump and very lazy, too ; yet Quiz, who was forever 
complaining of any shirking on the part of the boy who 
rode tandem with him, seemed to be perfectly contented 


120 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


to do the work when this girl, Cecily Brown, was in front 
of him. And she seemed perfectly willing to have him do it. 

On the front fork she planted her two little feet, which 
she thought too dainty to spoil by hard work, and 
coasted — always coasted, whether the road went up hill 
or down. 

Cecily had seemed to be very proud of Quiz when he 
rode into the ring, and bowed and smiled to him ostenta- 
tiously. But he noted, to his bitter chagrin, that she 
was now showing greater pride in the achievements of 
the Charlestonians, and applauding their good plays 
enthusiastically. 

Quiz set his teeth hard, and determined to win back 
her pride to Lakerim. A few of the Dozen had come 
over to see to their share of the cheering, and they yelled 
encouragement to him with the same ardor, whichever 
way the game went. That was some help. 

Quiz went in to win with such a dash that before 
many minutes he had jammed the ball into the goal at 
the cost of four spokes for Boggs, and for himself 
a twisted front wheel that looked like a wilted collar. 

He and Boggs were supplied at once with fresh bicycles, 
however, and the game went madly on. Quiz spared 
himself no struggle to keep the ball in Charleston terri- 
tory. He would not risk anything more on Punk’s slow- 
ness. By the fire and fury of his speed, and the skill 
with which he held his wheel still, or backed it, or used 
it for a buffer or a bat, he managed to keep both Boggs 
and Haddock flying. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


121 


Twice or thrice he came as close to scoring goals as the 
striking of the box, but he was able to get at the ball 
again only after a beautiful display of skill, in wliich he 
nursed the ball along the side wall, twisting his wheel in 
front of it or behind it according as he wished to ward 
off Charleston or to propel the ball. So he worked it far 
around the circle behind the box before he had the chance 
he wished and found Boggs and Haddock so placed that 
they could not check him in a straight drive for the 
goal, and the bell jangled in a key new to the town of 
Charleston. 

The score stood: Charleston— 3; Lakerim— 2. 

There was a fine scramble and scurry now, as Charles- 
ton realized the mettle of its opponent. In spite of their 
most violent parrying, however, Quiz, with the aid of luck 
and a courage that hesitated at no risk where there was 
a chance of driving the ball, banged the ball home for a 
tie. 

He looked up among the audience now, and saw that 
the fair and fickle Cecily was in a sad plight. Not know- 
ing which side was going to win, she had no resource but 
to keep silent. 

As the first part of the game ended with the score at a 
tie, her misery lasted long. She would have found some 
comfort in the company of Quiz, but that dignified young 
gentleman kept far from the sound of her voice or the 
beckoning of her eye. 

The next half opened with both sides refreshed. Quiz 
had had a chance to preach a little sermon to Punk about 


122 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


the evil effects that always followed when a young man 
of his age wandered far from home. Punk took the hint, 
and the next half he hung about the goal-box as if he 
were a watch-dog and the goal-box a casket of jewels and 
the audience a band of thieves. Owing to this caution, 
Charleston failed to score in spite of frequent brilliant 
dashes. 

Boggs and Haddock had also had a conversation in the 
intermission, and determined, if the worst came, to make 
use of a bold play that depended for its success entirely 
upon its audacity. The goal-keeper suddenly left his goal 
entirely uncovered and dashed down the field, zigzagging 
the ball into Boggs’ hands and receiving it back in a way 
that made the lone, lorn Quiz dizzy to behold and help- 
less to prevent. Whenever he darted to one side, the ball 
was sure to be on the other. By the time he got back the 
ball had exchanged places with him. 

The four players soon found themselves tied in a true- 
lovers’ knot back of the goal-boxes. They fell off and 
remounted, or hopped off their low seats and hopped back 
again like so many frogs. The audience, being unable to 
tell which from tf other, applauded indiscriminately, sure 
that whichever set got the applause deserved it. 

At length the two Charlestonians managed to get out 
of the scrimmage with the ball in their possession. They 
worked it around to the right and drove it toward the 
goal, while Punk nearly snapped his pedals off trying to 
beat the ball to the box. 

By a hair’s-breadth he did it. He gave a desperate 



A CEITJCAL MOMENT FOE THE LAKEEIM BICYCLE-POLOISTS 






































































‘ 









































THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


125 


slash that tumbled him off the wheel and over the box, 
which rang up a goal that had n’t been earned. But he 
had started the ball mightily on a bee-line for the unpro- 
tected Charleston goal. 

J ust as the Charlestonians realized the outcome of their 
rashness, and put out for home and fireside from the 
right side, Quiz shot out from the left. Boggs was 
ahead of him, and the way they annihilated space was a 
caution to humming-birds. Neither could gain an inch 
on the other, though both gained on the flying ball. 

Quiz saw that Boggs would succeed in heading it off, 
and knowing that time was about to be called, he flung 
prudence to the wind, and when Boggs landed in front of 
the goal just in time to stop the ball, Quiz swept alongside. 

The ball bounded off Boggs’ front wheel, struck the 
front wheel of Quiz, and stopped. Quiz went on until he 
struck the rear wheel of Boggs, against which his front 
one smashed to flinders. As he fell, however, Quiz gave 
a desperate lurch that made a very bucking bronco out of 
his bicycle. He smote the ball with his rear wheel and 
sent it under the pedals of Boggs’ wreck and “ slammed 
it home ” for the winning goal. The bell was a knell to 
Charleston’s hopes, for time was soon up. 

Even the hostile audience lost their heads at the splen- 
dor of Quiz’ achievement ; and many of the spectators 
broke over the low barrier. Among them was Cecily 
Brown, who had ruined her gloves applauding her hero’s 
courage. Seeing that he would not come to her, she 
meekly came to him. 


126 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Quiz took home two battered wheels by train that 
night, but he was so proud and happy that he had to ride 
out on the rear platform, where his joy could extend far 
back to the horizon. In his left pocket he carried one 
hundred and twenty-five dollars, the Lakerims’ share of 
the receipts. Besides that money he felt that he had won 
something still more precious— the admiration of Cecily 
Brown. 


IX 

I N a few days after this victory the newspapers were 
full of a great test of the value of the bicycle in war, 
to be made by General Miles. 

He was going to have a message carried from Chicago 
to Boston by relays. The time scheduled would require 
the utmost exertion of every rider. Most of the partici- 
pants were to be men of mature strength, well-known 
speed and endurance. The Lakerims’ motto was, “Try 
everything; fear nothing,” and the Dozen had the— the 
“impudence,” some called it, to make application for 
permission to carry the packet part way. 

They were accorded the privilege of carrying it only 
through the county of which Lakerim was the county- 
seat. Much blame was cast upon the executive commit- 
tee that intrusted so important a matter to young boys ; 
but the lack of a large bicycle club near the town made it 
hard to find better material. 

After much deliberation it was determined that the 
whole matter should be intrusted to Punk and Quiz. 

The clerk of the Weather Bureau seems to have been 
down on the scheme, for during the week of the great 

127 


128 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


relay the weather was rainy and sleety and cold and 
windy and foggy and everything else that anybody could 
imagine and nobody desire. 

From the very beginning the relay riders sent up one 
wail. The telegraphic reports were full of dismal accounts 
of obstacles— of spring floods, broken bridges, and gen- 
eral unpleasantness— that kept half of the relay riders 
behind their schedule, and put the crack riders to their 
utmost to make up what had been lost before. As for 
doing what they had all hoped to do,— to complete the 
distance in twenty hours less than the schedule,— that 
seemed quite hopeless. 

As the packet came nearer and nearer to Lakerim, State 
by State, Quiz and Punk grew more serious. The eyes of 
the whole country would be upon them. Being merely 
boys, they would be picked out for especial ridicule if 
they caused any loss of time. 

The day before the packet was expected they went out 
to their respective posts. Punk had the farther to go, 
and he was to carry it over a fairly decent stretch of 
country that extended from the city of Charleston half- 
way to the town of Lakerim. 

Quiz was to take the message from him and carry it into 
Lakerim, where the fastest rider of the State was to take it 
over a magnificent level road to the borders of the next State. 

The day on which the packet was expected, the clouds 
seemed to be broken to pieces under the flails of the 
lightning. 

By an almost superhuman effort, the rider just preced- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


129 


ing Punk managed to get the packet to him only fifteen 
minutes late. He had made up thirty. 

There was some delay and fumbling on the part of 
Punk when he took the packet, and he got a bad start. 
Then he disappeared into the fog of the early afternoon. 
Punk’s ride was uneventful, except that he set himself 
too slow a pace and hung on to it doggedly, fearing to 
take time even to look at his watch. 

At the station where he was to deliver up his trust, Quiz 
was waiting and ready an hour before the time. Though 
it was not yet dark, he had his lantern well filled, his 
wick well trimmed, his match-box well provided, and the 
lantern lighted and turned low. His wheel had been 
polished and dusted and oiled, the chain graphited, the 
bearings inspected, the handle-bars lowered so that he 
could bend over and offer the least possible resistance to 
the wind. His watch had been carefully regulated and 
set. He was clad as warmly and as lightly as could be. 
In his pockets were the only weights he permitted him- 
self— a few sizable cobblestones which he meant to throw 
at any dog that might harass him. 

At first he hoped that the message might come to 
him ahead of time. As the minutes dragged on with no 
sign of Punk on the horizon, he began to despair. As 
the hour of the schedule came, he grew more solemn. 
Fifteen minutes went by, then twenty, then thirty, and 
he was as restless as a caged panther. 

At last he caught sight of a little speck in the distance. 
It grew slowly into the semblance of a bicyclist. 


130 


THE LAKEEIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


It was Punk, exhausted, and ignorant of the thirty-five 
minutes 7 handicap he had given Quiz. 

Quiz went out to meet him, and rode alongside, taking 
the precious parcel as they went. He flung it over his 
shoulder and darted away, leaving Punk to fall off 
into a convenient soft spot and regain his breath at 
his leisure. 

Punk was alarmed at the speed with which Quiz began 
his relay, for a long, steep hill confronted him. He 
yelled out a word advising him to go slow at first and 
save himself ; but Quiz knew that hills have both ups and 
downs, and he knew that, especially in relay-racing over 
rough country, it is best to apply the strength where it 
will give the best results. 

So he pumped and drove his pedals round and round, 
as if he were on some heavy treadmill. He strove till 
every muscle in his legs was an ache and every breath 
like a knife in his lungs. It seemed that the hill was 
never to end. But, wavering and beaten out, he finally 
made the crest in wonderful time, and giving himself a 
good start over it, set his weary feet one behind the other 
on the frame and let the wheel do the rest. His speed 
grew and grew till he was a regular comet. He flew 
into ruts that threatened to fling him, struck rocks that 
tried to give him headers, and swept around curves that 
promised to lay his careening wheel on its side. But his 
courage did not fail, and he made no appeal to the brake. 

The descent was as short and swift and refreshing as 
the ascent had been long and tedious and wearing. And 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


131 


when his wheel bounded out upon the plain at the foot 
of the great hill with the speed of an express-train, he 
had gained fourteen minutes clear on the schedule. 

Now the fog and drizzle, under the spite of a sudden 
squall, turned to a vicious storm of wind and rain. The 
long slants of water lashed his face and hands as if they 
had been the knots of a cat-o 7 -nine-tails, and the wind 
made onsets upon him as if it were a giant trying to 
shoulder him from his wheel. Still he pushed on, and his 
pluck outrode the wrath of the storm. 

Then he longed for even the blustering companionship 
of wind and rain in the dismal solitude of a deep woods. 
They held a twilight even through the noon of bright 
days, and now, in an hour when the open prairies were 
without the glimmer of sun or star, the forest seemed a 
ghostly jungle, filled with a blackness like night, and 
with horrible possibilities from hobgoblins, human and 
otherwise. 

But the courage and determination of Quiz were greater 
even than the vague terror he had of the gloomy canon 
where night seemed to be as thick and impenetrable as 
granite. He rode into many a pool and many a deep bog 
that oozed out beneath his wheel and brought him down. 
But he floundered out and shook off the mire and groped 
his way along on the turf by the rail fence until he could 
find a spot dry enough to ride on. 

The merry eye of his lantern saved him from a grie- 
vous collision with a great tree that had fallen across the 
road in the storm, and he had to clamber through its 


132 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


branches as if his wheel were a flying-machine instead of 
a bicycle. 

As he neared the edge of the wood his blood suddenly 
froze, for out of the darkness came, without warning, the 
gruff yell of a tramp. The fellow, seeing that Quiz was 
not going to stop, leaped up from a fence-corner to head 
him off, and made a fierce grab for him. 

But Quiz escaped him by the skin of his teeth, and 
escaped also the club the tramp sent hurtling after him. 
Quiz was rejoicing at his escape when his heart fell again 
as it dawned upon him that the road curved round upon 
itself, and that a run of a few yards through a neck of 
the woods would place the tramp right in his way. The 
tramp seemed to know this, too, for as Quiz came around 
the bend he saw himself confronted. But he was taking 
all chances desperately this night, and at the risk of any 
villainy he determined to do the only thing that could 
save him from the footpad. He thrust his right hand into 
his pocket and drew out one of the jagged stones he had 
stored up against canine attack. He had not expected to 
use it against so mean or so dangerous a cur as now 
threatened him in this lonely place. 

With a cry of warning he rode full tilt at the tramp. 
Just as the man reached out to drag him from his wheel 
the boy let fly the stone. It caught the tramp fair in the 
face, and sent him over backward. While Quiz’ right 
hand was doing such execution, the left hand was pilot, 
and with a sudden swerve it carried Quiz around and 
beyond the tramp. And he flew on his way rejoicing. 



“ THE FELLOW LEAPED UP FROM A FENCE-CORNER TO HEAD HIM OFF.” 








• ' 






•* * I 


.. .« w - 
















• 


« ✓ • - • — w - * «<• 



















v*.- *, . . * 




* -. f . M 




\ 



















THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


135 


At the next obstacle that caused him to dismount, he 
took a look at his watch by the light of his lantern, and 
reckoned that he had made up almost all of the time 
Punk had lost. 

It would not be enough merely to deliver the package 
without delay. Lakerim must make up something on the 
loss of those older riders who had gone before, and give 
in the packet ahead of time. He fairly hurled himself 
into his seat and struck out with new strength. Then 
the road grew rough, and he caught in a deep, hard rut 
that threw him to the ground. 

When he rose he found that his handle-bars had been 
twisted to one side. Rather than stop to take out his 
tool-bag and repair the injury, Quiz resolved to ride with 
them as they were. It was no easy matter to keep his cal- 
culations correct on the bias, but the road was kind to him 
now, and the handle-bars stuck fast in their position. He 
could have ridden swiftly without touching his handle-bars 
at all, and so, resting none of his weight upon them, he 
made fine progress. 

Soon he found himself nearing Lakerim, and he thought 
he could make out against the sky the nob of the Hawk’s 
Nest. The thought of home was spurs to his steed. 
Then, suddenly, at an easy bump in the road his lantern 
joggled out. 

Quiz thought, however, that he knew the road well enough 
to make it safe for him to wheel on without delaying to 
revive “ the light that failed.” He found his way in the 
double dark as well as a blind man on a familiar path. 


136 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Hope was burning now more brightly than the lantern 
had burned before. It illuminated his task, and he felt 
that he had saved the day for Lakerim. A little chuckle 
of pride and joy ended when he heard a sharp explosion 
as of a pistol. The chuckle was changed to a dismal : 

“ Punctured ! ” 

Still Quiz went on without slackening speed. The 
puncture might ruin both front tire and front wheel-rim, 
but nothing should give him pause. 

He urged his trembling wheel on until he felt himself 
near the banks of the creek that meandered round the 
Hawk’s Nest. Here he heard an angry roar instead of the 
gentle ripple he was used to. He knew that it was the 
time of spring freshets, and that the brook had doubled 
its width when he had ridden to his relay station the day 
before. But now a sudden flash of lightning that ripped 
the heavens barely saved him from pushing headlong into 
the wreck of the little wooden bridge that had carried the 
road across the harmless brook for years. 

The snows melting in the far-away mountains, and the 
rains that had opened the flood-gates of the skies, had 
made a torrent of this peaceful stream. At the very 
brink of it Quiz leaped from his wheel. 

And Lakerim only a mile away ! 

There was nothing to do now but take the railroad- 
bridge, which crossed the brook on a high trestle a fur- 
long away. Through the meadow he hastened, carrying 
his wheel on his shoulder and running as best he could. 

He climbed the embankment that led to the single 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


137 


track, and started across, rolling his wheel along on the 
ties. When he left the solid earth and picked his way 
across the gaps in the trestle, it was a fearsome sight to 
look down at the boiling rapids far below. Still he 
screwed his courage to the sticking-point, and picked his 
way, measuring each step until he was well in the middle 
of the trestle. 

His eyes had been busy with the gloom, trying to find 
a foothold for his feet. Suddenly they were attracted by 
a light appearing ahead in the dark. It seemed that a 
star had bloomed, then it blossomed to a planet, and 
from that quickly to a moon. And then he knew it to be 
the dragon’s eye of the 11 : 30 express sweeping down 
upon him ! The trestle carried only a single track, and 
there was not room for him and his wheel at the outside 
edges of it. 


X 


HERE are far better places for a boy to be at mid- 



I night than the middle of a lofty railroad-trestle; 
especially when a lightning express, at full speed, is about 
to dispute possession with him. 

The sight of the headlight that startled Quiz was fol- 
lowed at once by the increasing roar of the train as it 
swept upon him. After an instant of bewilderment he 
looked about for means of escape. “Maud S.,” were 
she alive and trotting, could not have reached the end of 
the bridge in time to save herself, and for this boy, dis- 
mounted and trundling a bicycle with one tire punctured, 
there could be no escape that way. One glance at the 
turbid stream below showed that if he made a leap for 
life he would lose what he leaped for. 

On the first impulse, Quiz was about to throw his wheel 
overboard and shift for himself. But the thought of the 
packet slung round his shoulders, and of his responsibility 
for its delivery in good time, dismissed that impulse. 

There was but one thing to do— but one chance to take ; 
and as he had been taking desperate chances from the 
beginning of his ride, he felt that he must take this one 


138 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


139 


also. He stepped to the edge of the trestle, and knelt 
just outside the rails. Taking his bicycle by the cross- 
bar, he lowered it carefully over the side. It was a light 
racing-wheel, and its weight did not drag him after it. 
Grasping one of the ties with his left hand, he cowered in 
a heap. He dared not look down at the rushing brook, 
for it made him dizzy. One glance at the express-train 
looming upon him like a fiery dragon was all he could 
endure. He closed his eyes; huddled himself together; 
waited. 

Now he felt the fierce glare of the headlight upon him. 
Now there was a sharp shriek from the whistle. It al- 
most sent him over into the stream. The fireman had seen 
him and had whistled : “ Down brakes ! ” The engineer 
reversed the lever, and there was a great hissing of 
steam, a jangling of bell, and a grinding of wheels on 
sand. But no power could have stopped the train in 
time. 

Then on Quiz’ ears the roar grew to a clatter of 
thunderbolts; the steam enveloped him; the scream of 
the brakes upon the wheels deafened him, and a sudden 
gale of wind almost swept him from the trestle. 

But he hung to the wet ties, and hung to his bicycle. 

And— after one dreadful moment — the express had 
shot past him, and he was safe ! He lost no time in 
wondering what the crew of the train would think when 
they brought the express to a halt and came back to 
search for him. But he gathered himself together at 
once, more frightened after the danger was past, than in 


140 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


its face ; and set off along the track as fast as his trem- 
bling legs could carry him. 

Near the end of the trestle, a road crossed the railway 
and ran down a hill into the town of Lakerim. Here 
Quiz bounded upon his wheel and coasted, caught the 
pedals at the very beginning of the level, and struck out 
for Lakerim. 

At the outskirts of the town several of the Dozen met 
him and rode in with him, cheering him and marveling at 
his progress with lantern out, front tire punctured, and 
handle-bars askew. But Quiz had no breath to waste in 
answering idle questions. He bent far over and pumped 
away at the pedals with every pound of steam he could 
command. 

And so he reached the square, where the next relay 
began. Here the champion of the State awaited him and 
honored him for his noble work with the two words : 

“ Good boy ! ” 

Well might he squander that much praise, for Quiz had 
made up all the time that was lost before him, and had 
brought in the packet five minutes ahead of his schedule. 
The next rider had no such obstacles before him, but a 
hard, level pike clear to the edge of the State, which 
promised still more gains upon the time-table. 

Quiz, having surrendered the packet, fell from his 
wheel into the arms of his friends— and also into the 
arms of several reporters, who demanded what breath he 
had left to reply to their questions. They telegraphed all 
over the continent long stories of his magnificent ride. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


141 


And Quiz woke up the next morning to find himself 
famous for at least a day. 

The next morning he also woke up to find himself sum- 
moned to an important meeting of the Lakerim Athletic 
Club. The Dozen met by appointment in the office of 
Mr. Clinton Mills, a young lawyer who had just “hung 
out his shingle,” and had more time to spare than he 
knew what to do with. He had taken a great interest in 
the doings of the Dozen, and had invited them to talk 
over their club-house scheme. 

When the meeting had been called to order by Presi- 
dent Tug, and Mr. Mills had taken the floor of his own 
office, he said : 

“Boys,— I mean Mr. President and Gentlemen of the 
Lakerim Athletic Club,— ahem ! ahum ! Your President 
has been kind enough to permit me to interfere in your 
affairs. I understand you are looking forward to having 
a club-house of your own. As I understand it, you are 
trying to earn money enough by your games to build this. 
I do not know whether or not you have thought how 
expensive a proper club-house will be ; how much the 
land will cost, and all the gymnastic and other furnish- 
ings. I don't know whether you have thought how long 
a time it is going to take you to earn all this money. 

“ But if you have thought, you must know that it will 
be at least three years before you will have money 
enough laid up to start work.” 

At this point twelve faces lengthened dismally, and 


142 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


twenty-four eyes looked at one another in dismay. The 
boys had never stopped to think all these things through. 

“Besides, fellows— er— gentlemen,” Mr. Mills went on, 
“ when you have all your money together it takes a great 
amount of time to have plans drawn up and contracts let 
and building under way. And then it takes months and 
months to get the work done. Now, I suppose you have 
all been taught that running into debt is a very wrong 
and unwise thing to do ? ” 

Twelve heads nodded solemnly. 

“ On the contrary,” Mr. Mills said, with equal solemnity, 
“ it may sometimes be bad policy and very unwise not to 
run into debt. It all depends upon the reason for your 
borrowing. If you borrow something to spend on things 
you do not need, you are doing a thing both foolish and 
wicked. It is doubly hard to be deprived of necessities 
in the future to pay for needless luxuries of the past, and 
you will soon believe that all money borrowed foolishly 
is paid twice. 

“ But debts wisely contracted are the foundation of all 
wealth. Ninety per cent, of the business of the world is 
done on a credit basis, and only ten per cent, on a cash 
basis. Now, there is a way for this club to start the build- 
ing of its club-house immediately, and to build a house 
costing thousands of dollars, in spite of the fact that you 
have in your treasury only— how much is there in your 
treasury ? ” 

“ Five hundred and fifty-two dollars,” said Punk. 

“ You have earned, then, about five hundred and fifty 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


143 


dollars in five months. A completely equipped club-house 
will cost you something like thirty-five hundred dollars, 
and take months to build. Now, the thing I would 
advise you to do, gentlemen, is this : Make some arrange- 
ment with your architects and builders by which they will 
take liens and mortgages on your building for security. 
What money you have can go as a first payment for land, 
and you can start work at once. By very active exertions 
you ought to have your club-house under roof before the 
first snow flies. I shall be very glad if the club will ac- 
cept my services to draw up all the legal papers free of 
charge, and to do anything else I can.” 

When Mr. Mills sat down, History proposed a vote of 
thanks j but Jumbo leaped up and moved three cheers, 
which the whole club seconded, and thirded, with yells. 
When order was restored it was soon voted to place the 
legal affairs of the club in the hands of Mr. Mills, who 
was to act as trustee, since all the boys were minors and 
could not own property. 

Sawed-Off rose to say that, as his father was an archi- 
tect, he felt sure he could get the plans drawn up for 
nothing, or next to nothing, and Jumbo suggested that 
his father, having a lumber-yard, would undoubtedly sell 
the club timber at the lowest possible rate. Other boys 
had fathers in other businesses where discounts would be 
of advantage, and Mr. Mills capped the climax of enthu- 
siasm by remarking that the city was not using a certain 
tract of land on which had stood a school-house, now dis- 
carded for a newer and better building in another part of 


144 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


the town, and he thought it not impossible that the city 
officials could be persuaded to deed this to the club for its 
purposes. Or perhaps the Business Men’s Association, 
seeing the advantage to the town of having such a club- 
house, would buy the site from the city. 

With this, the meeting broke up in high glee. Every 
member promised to do what he could, and at once. 

A few days later another meeting was called to con- 
sider an invitation from the Greenville Academy to take 
part in a tournament of field and track athletics. Charles- 
ton and Greenville had been defeated so often by the 
Dozen that they were in favor of admitting Lakerim to 
the Tri-State Interscholastic League. But the rest of 
the academies objected to admitting a mere high school 
into their circle. 

The field-day of the League was not far off, and every 
academy was holding preliminary trials for the selection 
of a team to represent it. 

Greenville was courteous enough to invite the poor 
frozen-out Lakerim Club to join them in a special tourney. 
For the Dozen to contest with a whole academy looked 
rash, but they had a mettle for everything in the line of 
sport ; and they were not yet ready to take in any other 
Lakerim boys. So they determined to make what show- 
ing they could. 

Every moment of liberty they could take from their 
school-hours they spent in practice. The runners raced 
to school with an eagerness and a speed that might have 
led their teachers to think they were just a little bit fonder 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


145 


of their studies than they actually were. They raced 
home from school with a delight that did not exaggerate 
their gladness to be out. 

The jumpers bounced around town like kangaroos. 
The hurdlers had many a bruise from trying to leap 
fences that were too high. The walkers went about the 
streets like badly jointed puppets. The hammer-throwers 
broke more than one fence, and bruised more than one 
shin. The shot-putters displaced all the big boulders in 
town. The bicyclists made the staid villagers u humph ” 
themselves, as Mr. Kipling says, at all the street-crossings. 

The Dozen ran, jumped, threw, and whizzed till long 
after dark, and dieted so strictly that the town of Lake- 
rim never saw so few pies consumed. 

On a fine spring Saturday, behold a merry crew from 
Lakerim threatening the peace of the town of Greenville. 
The quarter-mile track in the Academy grounds was rolled 
and sprinkled. The grand stand was gay with ribbons and 
flags, to which were attached beaming men and women, 
boys and girls. Inside the quarter-circle there were all 
sorts of traps and contrivances, not to mention umpires 
and referees, feeling almost as big as their badges. 

Most important of all was a human calliope, who an- 
nounced the results of the contests in a voice that began 
like a trumpet and ended like a kazoo. 

The first affair was the Mile Walk. Next to the motion 
of a one-legged hen or a dog with a sore foot, a walking- 
match is probably the most ungraceful thing ever seen on 
earth. So the Greenville people put it first, that they 


146 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


might have it over with. There were three Greenville 
men and three Lakerim men entered for the walk, and 
the only good thing that can he said of it was that it was 
awkward enough to he funny. Otherwise the four laps 
would have put the audience to sleep or driven them home. 
Around the track the six hunched and crawled, doing 
more work for less speed than anything but a man on a 
treadmill. 

A long-legged Greenville man, who struggled along as 
if he were lifting his feet out of soft tar at every step, 
got away with the rest from the start. Punk labored 
after him, hut lost ground constantly, and in the last 
quarter had the pleasure of seeing another Greenville 
man crawl past him for second place. 

This gave Greenville eight points to Lakerim’s one; 
the first man scoring, of course, five points, the second 
man three, and the last man one point, throughout the 
contests. 

The second event of the Greenville program— which, 
for several reasons, was not according to the usual order 
— was the Mile Run. Reddy and Heady had entered for 
it, and also Tug. The twins got away together, and, 
their caps being soon blown off, they looked like the 
flaming brands of one of the ancient torch-races. Tug 
followed close after them, and three Greenville men were 
bunched at his heels. Greenville allowed the twins to 
set the pace for the first lap, and then one of their three 
shook himself out and came to the fore. This sprint was 
too much for Tug, who had trained for the Quarter-mile 


PUTTING THE SHOT, 
















































































■ 














































































































> 















THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


149 


Run, and who felt it wisest to drop out and save himself 
for that event. 

Reddy and Heady alternately pushed ahead of Green- 
ville, and alternately fell back. After see-sawing thus 
into the home stretch they went at the track, hammer and 
tongs, but the Greenville man drew ahead of both with 
ease, and the only thing for them to do was to fight it out 
between themselves for second place; for they had the 
other Greenvillians well distanced. The Greenville 
champion reached the wire first without difficulty, and 
after him Reddy and Heady flew, each vowing that the 
other should not beat him. Which one won is doubtful, 
for human eye could not see the difference between their 
noses. But there was no need of a decision, for which- 
ever was second, the other was third. Score : Greenville— 
13; Lakerim— 5. 

And now came a 100-yard Dash. There were no pre- 
liminary heats to be run off, and all depended on this 
one fraction of a minute. Lakerim had its hopes bent 
upon Pretty, and he crouched over the line like a lynx ; 
but his ears were so quick that he heard the shot before 
it was fired. He gave a great lunge and was down the 
track like the wind. He did not heed the yells that 
greeted his mistake, but flew on till Sawed-Off ran out 
and headed him off at the 50-yard mark. But he had 
spent his first strength, and when the pistol was actu- 
ally fired, he was late in that all-important thing, the 
start. 

It was beautiful to see him running. Wavering neither 


150 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


to the right nor to the left, he sped like an arrow straight 
for the bull’s-eye. 

The Greenville sprinter, however, had too good a start, 
and bravely as Pretty gained on him, it was a Greenville 
breast that carried away the string. Bobbles was a poor 
third, and Lakerim had to content itself with four points 
where it had felt sure it would win at least first place. 
Score: Greenville— 18 j Lakerim— 9. 

“ They ’ve got us beaten,” said Sleepy, dolefully. 

“Never say die,” said Tug, grimly. 

“ They ’re easy,” said Miggs of Greenville, Class of ’00. 

“ Too easy to make it interesting,” said Boggs of Green- 
ville, ’01. 

The fourth contest was a Half-mile Run. Sawed-Off, 
who was the best all-round athlete of the Dozen, could 
run like a stag, for all his height and weight, and was 
the chief hope of Lakerim. Just to prove his right to a 
position in an athletic club, the diminutive History had 
actually entered the race, to the secret amusement of the 
Twelve, and the open merriment of the audience when he 
took his place at the starting-point, and assumed a vio- 
lent posture that made him look like a pocket-athlete. 

“He ’s slower than molasses in January,” said Jumbo 
to Quiz. 

“ Still, I don’t know,” said Quiz. “ He may get around 
once while the others are making it twice, and come in to 
the home stretch with the best of ’em.” 

He was more of a prophet than he knew. For His- 
tory, having read somewhere of the wisdom of starting 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


151 


slowly on a long run, began at a gait just about fifty per 
cent, lower than that of the other runners. Furthermore, 
he lost his spectacles, and had to grope around in the 
dust for them ; and after that a shoe-lace broke, and he 
must needs halt, make a knot in it, and tie it up again. 
He was almost run over by the five sprinters, who had 
circled the course once and caught up with him when he 
was not half-way around his first lap. 

History had a vague idea of making a bold dash when 
he had finished the first lap, and he set off again after the 
disappearing runners at an easy jog. Then a sharp stitch 
in the side caused him some trouble, and he rested a 
moment. To his intense surprise, when he looked round 
before starting away again, he saw a Greenville man 
leading a thin line of runners straight for him to the 
home stretch. It dawned upon History that he would 
have to be an express-train to get within the possibility 
of winning the race. 

Then a great idea came to him. In his Latin class he 
had been much impressed with the story of Nisus and 
Euryalus as Vergil tells it. He saw Sawed-Off laboring 
along close after the Greenville man, but too far behind 
to stand much chance of winning the first place. History 
had an inspiration, as he called it, for proving that 
American friendship is as strong as Greek. 

Just as the Greenville man reached his side, History 
pretended to slip; he lurched over against Sawed-OfPs 
victorious rival, and brought him to the ground, falling 
heavily with him. The Greenville man was as wrathful 

9 


152 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


as lie was amazed, and kicked out wildly, landing one foot 
in History’s stomach, and scraping off those all-important 
spectacles with the other. 

A yell of rage went up from the Greenville audience at 
the downfall of their champion. They were not near 
enough to see that it was all a contemptible trick, or His- 
tory might not have got off with so little damage as the 
loss of breath and spectacles 0 

When Sawed-Off reached the scene of the downfall, he 
was too magnanimous to go on and take the prize that 
was now so easily in his grasp. He stopped and helped 
the disgusted Greenviller to his feet. The other contes- 
tants also stopped as they came up, and the race was evi- 
dently to be run over. As History saw the outcome of 
his plot he began to see how despicable such tactics are, 
and how little profit they bring. So he went back to his 
books, a sadder and a wiser boy. 

The fifth contest was a Two-mile Bicycle Race. When 
Quiz seated himself upon his wheel, which Tug held for 
him, Lakerim thought of his fame and plucked up a little 
courage. Then the Greenville bicyclist took his place, 
and he was so much longer of leg, and rode a wheel so 
much larger, and towered over Quiz so threateningly, and 
had such a record of victories, that Lakerim’s heart fell 
again. Punk was the only other representative of the 
Dozen. 

At the signal the five men rode out quite leisurely. The 
champion Greenville bicyclist soon turned into the pole 
and took the lead. He set a pace meant to be heart- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


153 


breaking, but Quiz bung to him like a tender. He 
spurted awhile 5 but Quiz always held his position just 
at his back, and after him came Punk. 

So they went around the track four times, until the 
first mile was done. And then the Greenville man was 
tired of being pace-maker, and slowed up to let Lake- 
rim take the lead. But the two from Lakerim slackened 
their speed and declined to move up ahead. The Greenville 
wheelman tried to force them to pass him, but they 
modeled their speed on his, and for two laps more the 
bicyclists fairly crawled around the track until the audi- 
ence roared in disgust. 

Now the Greenville rider felt that he had regained his 
breath, he put u spurs to his steed.” With increasing 
velocity he wheeled away until all the seventh lap was 
passed, and half of the next one. And then— there is 
no telling exactly how he did it— Quiz was suddenly out 
from his place and alongside his rival — was ahead of 
him and, swerving to the inner side of the track, had 
taken the pole! 

The Greenviller accepted the challenge, and came 
alongside in his turn, and away they flew like two stormy 
petrels skimming the sea. Around the curve they churned 
at a fearful slant. Neck and neck they dashed toward 
the wire, evenly placed, as if their wheels were locked side 
by side. But somewhere in his lungs and legs Quiz found 
a pound of reserve strength ; and with a furious heart he 
drove it hard into his pedals, and crossed the wire half a 
foot in the lead ! 


154 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Several yards later Punk crossed the wire, and the 
Lakerimmers let loose the cheers that they had packed 
away in their breasts. The score looked much better for 
them now as 21 to 15. 

It looked better still when the tedious Broad Jump, 
after many narrow escapes, went to B. J., who, on his 
third trial, managed to leap one eighth of an inch farther 
than the best distance the Greenville men could make. 

Lakerim won the third prize also, thanks to the violent 
efforts of Punk. Score: Greenville— 24 j Lakerim— 21. 

The seventh event was the 120-yard Hurdle. Pretty 
and Jumbo were Lakerim’s only entries in this event, and 
long practice had trained them just to take the cream off a 
hurdle, as it were, without touching it. But there was 
one Greenville man who had the same art. At the snap of 
the pistol Pretty and he got away together. The first 
yards before the first hurdle they ran at exactly even 
speed, and over the obstacle they went as one. Then 
Pretty proved best on the recovery, and reached the next 
hurdle first and took it alone. The third and the others 
also were his, and he soared over them like a greyhound 
on the hunt. 

But the last obstacle he misjudged, and struck it with 
his toe, not hard enough to overturn it, yet hard enough 
to disconcert him, and to retard him for that fatal frac- 
tion of a second which means everything in a short dash ; 
and when he entered the clear space he found the Green- 
ville man at his side. Then there was a struggle that 
stirred the heart. Shoulder to shoulder the two boys 


ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YARD HURDLE. 







THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


157 


sped, and when both made a desperate leap at the line, 
each faction of the spectators thought its man had won. 

All Greenville howled with delight, and all Lakerim 
yelled in triumph. Those of the audience that were not 
partisans of either side found themselves screaming for 
both. No one had noted that Jumbo was the next man 
home ; but every one crowded about the judges, gesticulat- 
ing and demanding a decision for the favored man. 

The decision was a victory for the Lakerim contingent ; 
and when the judges, after consultation, unanimously 
agreed that Pretty had been a hair’s-breadth ahead of his 
rival, their joy knew no restraint. Elderly citizens 
slapped one another on the shoulder, and grew purple in 
the face, and the white-haired banker winked at the gray- 
bearded principal of the High School. The mothers of 
Lakerim were waving their handkerchiefs, and the girls 
were screaming almost as loud as the boys. 

27 to 27 ! 

There is a beautiful balance about such a score that 
appeals to every artistic mind. 

But hope received a shock when the next contest, also 
a Hurdle Race, of 220 yards, gave Greenville eight points 
to Lakerim’s one ; for Bobbles could not make better than 
third place, and neither Reddy nor Heady could beat out 
the other Greenville man. 

With the score at 35 to 28 it was evident that the con- 
test was to be again a stern-chase, which, as every one 
knows, is a long chase. 

In the Pole Vault B. J. showed a knack for playing 


158 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


monkey on a stick to such an extent that the Greenville 
ape could not squeeze himself over the cross-bar where 
B. J. left it, though twice he broke a bar in the attempt. 

Punk proved the importance of winning even third 
place, and in his steady, cautious way added one point to 
the Lakerim count. 

The score now stood, 38 to 34. 

And Lakerim looked to Sawed-Off and his strong tri- 
ceps for further gain. 

In putting the shot straight from the shoulder the boy 
shoved the heavy cannon-ball out into space with a vim 
that should have driven it into the middle of next week. 
It hardly went that far, but, on the last put, it thudded the 
ground at a point out of all reach by Greenville muscles. 

One of the Academy men was a bad second, and Tug 
was a fair third. 

When Lakerim saw the Greenville score once more 
within sight, it sent up three whole-souled cheers for 
Sawed-Off. Score: Greenville— 41 ; Lakerim— 40. 

The High Jump was unfortunately placed too close to 
the Pole Vault, but since the Dozen had to appear in 
more than a proper number of events, to eke out their 
small numbers in the face of the larger numbers the 
Academy had to offer, there was nothing to do but set 
the weary but plucky B. J. to work again. 

Leap as he would, he could not wriggle over the mark 
reached by Greenville, and after three vain trials had to 
rest content with second place. And there was no Lake- 
rim man to take the third. Score : 47 to 43. 



W~WJf 



























































































* 






















































































/ 
















































































THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


161 


But in the 440-yard Run Tug acquitted himself nobly, 
and took his place among the ranks of 5-point winners. 

Sleepy, realizing that he was of little value in a spurt, 
set the pace at a high rate, which left all but two of the 
contestants behind, so that when Tug and the Greenville 
man passed him on the home stretch he won third place 
at an easy trot. The score now stood, 50 to 49. 

In the 220-yard Dash Pretty's rival had his revenge, 
and beat the Lakerim men handily ; but since Jumbo was 
a good third, his victory was not fatal to Lakerim hopes. 
The Dozen still saw in the score of 55 to 53 some reason 
to believe that the steady Sawed-Off could win the day. 

While Pretty was meeting defeat upon the track, Sawed- 
Off was bringing dismay to the hearts of all the Academy 
hammer-throwers. Sawed-Off had taken a hint from a 
Western school-boy, who had seen fit to make a variation 
on the old style of hammer ; instead of the stiff rod he 
used a flexible wire for a handle, and got much advantage 
from it. He whirled this about his head with terrific 
force, and sent the hammer flying out into space in a 
beautiful arc. Beginning gradually, he passed the suc- 
cessive marks of the Greenville men, until one superb 
throw caused the man who ran out with the tape-measure 
to look twice and gasp with astonishment, for Sawed-Off s 
throw had hurled the hammer 155 feet 3£ inches, which 
broke all the records of the League by a score of feet. 
There was nothing further to say, except to grumble at 
the hammer. 

Sawed-Off maintained that his hammer came within 


162 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


the rules, and was a proper improvement on the rigid 
handles previously used. The judges could find nothing 
in the laws against it, hut there was so much grumbling 
in Greenville that Sawed-Off seized the hammer used by 
their champion, and, ordering the crowd to flee for their 
lives, waved it about his head and sent it into space from 
the catapult of his whole body. 

It went so much farther than the best Greenville record 
that there was no more wrangling. 

But Punk, in whom Lakerim had placed hope for at 
least third place, had failed to equal even his practice 
record, and Lakerim’s heart sank at the score— 59 to 58. 

Then they were beaten after all ! 

But suddenly one of the judges remembered that 
the postponed Half-mile race had not yet been run over. 
Sawed-Off was the only man Lakerim could count on for 
a good place in this event. For Tug, in leaping high in 
air to celebrate Sawed-Off’s great hammer-throwing, had 
come down with his ankle awry, and strained it so badly 
that he must needs be helped off the field. 

Here Lakerim was in a fine plight with its first runner 
worn out and its second disabled. Sawed-Off, however, 
insisted on going into the race, and while Jumbo was diplo- 
matically engaging the judges in a discussion that delayed 
the start to the last possible moment, Sawed-Off was 
screwing his courage to the sticking-point. 

The Greenville man, who had shown himself Sawed- 
Off’s superior in the first trial, had run recently in the 
220-yard Dash, and he was too short-winded to be at his 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


163 


best. Sawed-Off, on the other hand, was one of those 
natural athletes that thrive on exercise and grow stronger 
after a hard struggle. He set so tight a pace that the 
Greenville man was dizzy before the first lap was over, 
and in the last quarter was so breathless that he fell out 
in spite of the wild encouragement and protests of his 
coachers. While Bobbles was winning an exciting race 
for second position with a Greenville man, Sawed-Off 
crossed the line at a walk. 

And the final score stood, Lakerim — 66 5 Greenville— 60. 

It will need no affidavit from me to convince you that 
the Lakerim Athletic Club felt itself inhumanly happy at 
the discomfiture of its rivals. Home the Dozen went in 
the Lakerim carryall, their voices reduced to mere husks 
from their much yelling, and their muscles almost wearier 
with cavortings than with athletic labors. 

Sawed-Off was placed upon the seat with the driver— 
the nearest thing to a throne the boys could find. 

So home they drove, the two horses tugging and strain- 
ing at the bits in their eagerness to be in their stalls 
again, and the driver too sleepy to give them proper at- 
tention. The carryall took several curves on two side- 
wheels. 

Of course the crisis came just at the top of a steep hill. 
A sudden bolt of the horses snapped the lines out of the 
hand of the driver, and he wakened from a doze to see 
his uncheckable steeds taking the long hill down which 
Jumbo had coasted into fame at a furious gait, that meant 
a certain smash-up if they could not be checked before a 


164 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


sharp turn at the foot of the incline. Immediately the 
cowardly driver yelled to the Dozen to save themselves, 
and jumped. 

The hoys in the carryall, hearing the driver’s cry of 
terror, craned their necks to see the danger that threat- 
ened them. Sawed-Olf’s quick backward glance showed 
him that the driver, as he struck, must have broken some 
bones, if not his neck. 

The boy found himself alone on the driver’s box, the 
reins dangling out of reach, and eleven of his friends 
dependent upon him for their safety, perhaps for their 
lives. 


XI 



S the rickety old carryall jounced and rattled down 


jljl the hill, Sleepy, learning from the excited words of 
the boy seated farthest forward that the lines were lost 
and the horses running away, woke up for once in his life 
and made a violent effort to open the door at the back. 
But the driver had fastened its strap to the front, and the 
door could not be opened. 

Glancing back into the swarming mass of boyhood in- 
side the carryall, Sawed-Off, left alone on the front seat, 
saw that his eleven chums were caged like rats, and that 
if he did not stop the horses, the Lakerim Athletic Club 
would be extinguished in one grand smash-up at the 
bottom of the long hill. 

Only a moment he hesitated, his heart pounding him like 
a door-knocker. Then a great calm came over him. He let 
himself down till one dangling foot touched the whiffletree ; 
then making sure it was firmly placed on the tongue of 
the carryall, he dropped quickly forward, with one hand 
on the back of each of the horses. 

At this new weight the beasts were the more terrified, 
and jerked the pole to and fro like the mast of a ship in 


165 


166 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


a storm. But Sawed-Off placed one foot cautiously in 
front of the other and crept along until he reached almost 
the end of the pole, and there dropped astride it. This sud- 
den jolt nearly brought the horses to their knees, but 
fortunately for all concerned, the horses included, they 
did not stumble. 

Now Sawed-Off reaches a hand to each of the bits, and 
now the two arms that have broken the record of three 
States for throwing the hammer and putting a cannon- 
ball are bringing down those two wildly resisting heads 0 
Gripping the pole beneath his thighs so that he cannot 
slip off, Sawed-Off exerts his biceps with irresistible force, 
and his voice with soothing gentleness. 

And now the heads are down, and turned in close 
together, and the gallop is a gentle trot ; and now it is a 
peaceful walk, and now the horses are at a standstill. 

When the carryall is finally stopped, Tug throws his 
weight against the door and breaks the strap. He runs 
to the head of the horses and stands there while Sawed- 
Off disengages himself. Punk leads three of the boys 
back to pick up the driver, and down the hill they tote 
him, groaning with a broken arm. They place him on 
board the ship he had deserted, and Sawed-Off takes up 
the lines— the tiller, I should say— and pilots the old 
boat safely into the town of Lakerim. 

Before the athletes had got the lameness of the field-day 
out of their joints there was a huge stir in the town. Mr. 
Mills, the attorney-at-law,— a large name to stand for so 


HE DROPPED QUICKLY FORWARD, WITH ONE HAND ON THE BACK OF EACH OF THE HORSES 







THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


169 


small a practice,— had let no flower-beds grow under his 
feet, but had talked with all the influential citizens of 
Lakerim, and had convinced most of them that a good 
athletic club-house for the boys of the town would be an 
excellent investment, and would doubtless persuade many 
people to immigrate there in preference to other towns, 
where their boys might not be so well taken off their 
hands. 

The mayor did not see the way clear for the city to donate 
the tract of land Mr. Mills wanted, although he thought 
it could be sold or leased at a reasonable figure. 

The Business Men’s Association did not feel able to 
purchase the land from the city, and it looked as if, after 
all, the club would have to wait three years. 

Then a happy idea struck Mr. Mills, and he persuaded 
the Business Men’s Association to lease this land from the 
city for ninety-nine years, pay down the rental for the first 
year, and guarantee the club’s payment for the future. 

As Sawed-Off had predicted, his father willingly con- 
sented to draw the design for a suitable club-house free 
of charge. A contractor was found who gladly under- 
took to rush the building through, and who promised to 
cut his commissions to the lowest point, provided the 
man who sold the timber and stone would sell at cost. 
The money in the treasury had to be devoted to a first 
payment, and suddenly Punk’s beautiful bank-account 
had vanished in air, and all he had left was a receipt from 
the contractor ; and even that was marked u on account.” 

The city took upon itself the cost of tearing down the 


170 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


old school-house ; what building-materials were of any use 
were sold to the club at a ridiculously low figure. The 
club felt that things were under way at last, and turned 
its whole mind to base-ball. 

The opponents in their first important game were 
doubly opponents because they were among the two or 
three members of the Interscholastic League most op- 
posed to admitting Lakerim. The Twelve went to Kings- 
ton with fire in their eye, as they said, and the first few 
innings were an education to their ungenerous rivals. 

Lakerim won the toss and chose to bat first. While 
the Kingston nine was distributing itself over the field, 
Sleepy chose a good club and sauntered leisurely up to 
the home plate. 

Sleepy might have been the captain of the team as well 
as first on its batting list j but when the office was prof- 
fered him he declined, saying that it meant too much 
trouble. So Tug was made captain. Sleepy also refused 
to accept an in-field position because the players were 
kept too busy inside the diamond. He chose the left field, 
whither usually the ball came straight to hand without being 
run for, and stuck fast in the palms once it was caught. 

So now the sleepy Sleepy provoked many protests from 
the crowd in the grand stand by his leisurely methods. 
But in spite of their yells he proceeded without haste to 
dust off the home plate j then he cast his eyes about the 
field, tried the heft of his bat, tapped it on the plate a few 
times, and finally settled himself into a position where he 
could reach the ball with the least difficulty. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


171 


The first missile thrown by the pitcher was an out-shoot. 
It seemed to Sleepy that it was just a little farther away 
than he wanted it, though the umpire called it a strike. 
The next ball was an in-shoot at the same level. Sleepy 
was too lazy to wince when it came swerving in at him, 
and he was too cautious to strike at it, because it was too 
close to the handle. 

11 Strike two ! v yelled the umpire, and the Kingston 
crowd laughed merrily at the stolid youth at the bat. And 
one boy howled, “ Get on to the cigar-store Indian ! n 

The pitcher, thinking he had an easy prey in front of 
him, did not deign to put a curve on the next ball, but 
sent it straight across the plate. The umpire had his 
mouth open to yell, “ Striker out ! ” but the words did 
not pass his mustache, for somehow the ball had found 
Sleepy’s bat waiting for it and was now making a bee-line 
for an unguarded spot in right field, while Sleepy was 
loping away toward first base at a rate that was not faster 
than was necessary to take advantage of the olean base- 
hit. 

The Kingston pitcher was so surprised at this that he 
gave Tug his base on balls, which compelled Sleepy to 
move on to second base. It made the pitcher nervous to 
see the deliberateness with which Sleepy plodded his way 
homeward. 

When Pretty came up to the bat, Tug played so far off 
first base that he had to dive for it once or twice when 
the pitcher tried to catch him napping. But Sleepy 
would take no chances, and kept only as far from second 


172 


THE LA KERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


base as the second baseman himself. His lack of daring 
made Tng furious, and he waved to him to play farther 
away. But Sleepy only glanced back at him and grinned. 
And so, when Pretty popped up a little fly that landed 
snugly in the second baseman’s hands, Sleepy reached the 
bag in time to be safe, while a quick throw beat Tug back 
to first. 

With two men out, B. J. swaggered up to the plate and 
smote the first ball pitched a fierce blow that seemed to 
drive it right through the pitcher. The Kingston second 
baseman took it neatly on a pick-up, and hoping to catch 
Sleepy out, passed it to the short-stop, who had run to 
second base. But Sleepy’s caution again saved him, and 
the delay in trying to put him out gave B. J. time to 
reach first base safely. 

Punk now appeared, and sent out a graceful fly that 
came to the center-fielder. If the ball had been a little 
pet bird, it could hardly have flown straighter to him, and 
he gave it a smile of welcome. 

But, in base-ball, the easiest thing is the hardest thing, 
and the fly was too easy for the center-fielder to hold. He 
caught it in his hands, and made a motion to throw it in, 
when, to his amazement, he found that he was throwing 
only the ghost of the ball, and that the real globule lay 
on the ground at his feet. At this unexpected result 
there was a perfect stampede among the three Lakerim 
base-runners. 

Sleepy made a lively run for third base, and, judging 
by the eye and attitude of the baseman that the ball was 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


173 


right after him, he made a leaping slide for the bag, and 
caught it just in time to be told by the umpire to stay 
where he was. 

This he was glad enough to do, and he lay on his face 
till the latest possible moment. Jumbo came to bat, and 
sent a hot grounder between first and second base, and 
got to first before it could be fielded in, while Sleepy 
walked home with a grin. And the first run was scored 
by the laziest man on the team. 

Now Sawed-Off arrived at the plate and saw his beloved 
Jumbo dancing about first base, and looking very home- 
sick 5 so he drove a vicious bee -liner just over the head of 
the pitcher, who dodged it, and still higher over the head 
of the second baseman, who leaped for it in vain ; and 
its force was not spent till it had passed the leap of the 
right-fielder and gone scooting out toward the fence. 
Sawed-Off’s beautiful drive accomplished its errand ; if it 
had gone a little farther to the left or right, it would 
have been a home run, but Sawed-Off could only make 
second, though he brought in three other men— B. J., 
Punk, and Jumbo. 

His virtue had to be its own and only reward, how- 
ever, for when Heady came to the bat he struck out, and 
the inning ended with four runs in Lakerim's favor, and 
Sawed-Off left on base. 

When Reddy saw his brother strike out he reproached 
him for it in vigorous terms. At the beginning of the 
next inning Heady had a chance to heap coals of fire on 
his head by saying nothing, for Reddy also struck out. 

10 


174 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


But Heady preferred to return Reddy’s compliments with 
some plain expressions of his own. 

When the Kingston team came in to bat, the Lakerim 
men took the following positions : 

The twins, of course, were the battery— Heady the 
catcher and Reddy the pitcher ; the elongated Sawed-Off 
was the first baseman ; Captain Tug found second base 
a central place for his supervision, and the steady-going 
Punk was an excellent third baseman ; Jumbo had to be 
short-stop that he might assist his best friend, Sawed- 
Off ; B. J. was in right-field, and the pretty work of the 
center field suited Pretty finely. Sleepy, as you have 
before heard, was left-fielder ; Bobbles and Quiz were 
substitutes, and History was the scorer. 

Reddy was such a swift little pitcher that while his 
curves were never very great, and he could not write his 
autograph in the air with a base-ball, his speed was enough 
to make even an older player nervous. But it was not so 
much the velocity his boyish arm could put in the base- 
ball as the confusing way he delivered it. 

The batsman found himself staring at a little red-headed 
spider seemingly trying to tie himself into a Gordian 
knot; then the first thing the batter knew the ball was 
past him and the umpire was coolly granting another 
strike. 

It took Reddy a few throws to get himself down to his 
true gait. The first Kingston batsman got a base on balls, 
but he starved to death on first base, for the next three 
never touched the ball except for an occasional foul tip. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


175 


When the Lakerims realized that the first inning was 
over, and the score was 4 to 0 in their favor, they could 
hardly believe their senses; but they came galloping in, 
and Heady, as I have said, opened the inning by strik- 
ing out. But Sleepy, reappearing at the plate, was de- 
lighted to find that four wild pitches of the Kingston man 
gave him first base without the usual amount of labor. 
Tug, as third batsman, brought Sleepy home and earned a 
run before the three men were out. The fact that the 
Kingston team could squeeze only one run into their half 
elated the Lakerims so much that they forgot to bat in 
the third inning, and made no runs in their half, and 
forgot to field in the Kingston half, and let in two runs. 
They were only boys after all, and success turned their 
heads. 

The fourth inning found the Kingston team so well 
rallied that Lakerim could not score. But the Dozen— 
or rather the Three Fourths of a Dozen— were also so 
steadied by Captain Tug’s good counsel that they put out 
Kingston in one-two-three order, on a fly to Punk, a 
strike-out to Reddy, and a beautiful pick-up and assist 
by Jumbo to Sawed-Off. 

The fifth inning found Lakerim so steadied that it made 
two runs before the fatal third goose-egg, and when 
Kingston had its fifth turn at the bat, it was only an 
almost impossible catch muffed by B. J. on a backward 
run that sent one Kingston man home. 

The score of 8 to 4 was not good enough for Lakerim, 
and the Kingston team found itself at the second half of 


176 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


the sixth inning with the mountain of 10 to 4 to climb. 
The game was plainly Lakerim’s if nothing happened to 
rattle the men. But they were in just such a state of 
confidence that any slight surprise might take them off 
their feet. And the surprise came. 

A Kingston man had reached first base. His succes- 
sor at the bat knocked a very slow grounder to short- 
stop. The first Kingston man reached second base be- 
fore the impatient Jumbo could pick up the ball. After 
making a feint at second and discovering that he was 
too late, Jumbo made a furious effort to catch the man at 
first base. But he threw far to one side, and when 
Sawed-Off made a lunge for it he missed it, and the ball 
flew to the right fence. Sawed-Off ran his level best 
after it, but when he had it in his fingers he saw the first 
Kingston man making tracks for the home plate. With 
all the power of his mighty right arm he hurled the ball at 
Heady, who had flung down his mask and was wildly 
beckoning for it. 

Heady would have had to be about thirteen feet tall 
to stop Sawed-Off’s throw. The ball landed in the midst 
of a crowd of Kingston people, who blocked Punk as he 
ran madly for it. He bunted a few of them off their 
feet, but the second Kingston man had crossed the home 
plate before he could deliver the ball to Heady. 

This little flurry had completely wrecked the discipline 
of the Lakerim team. Jumbo and Sawed-Off and Heady 
were smarting under the thought of their responsibility, 
and they fairly shivered with excitement. The Kingston 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


177 


captain came next to the bat. Reddy had caught the 
contagion of nervousness from his brother, and when he 
would have thrown his puzzling drop-shoot the ball slipped 
in his fingers and came so slowly to the plate that a blind 
man could hardly have missed it. The Kingston captain 
easily knocked it clean over the right-field fence. 

This fence was so near the first base that knocking the 
ball over it counted only for two bases and not for a 
home run. So the Kingston captain sat down on second 
base and guyed Tug, while a small boy who had watched 
the game through a knot-hole, and wished himself small 
enough to crawl through it, marched into the gate with 
the ball as proudly as if he were paying his admission 
with a nugget from the Klondike. 

The next man at the bat smacked a low ball to Punk 
on third base, and got his base safely because Punk feared 
to risk a throw that might advance the Kingston captain 
to third. 

While the man on first base was doing all he could to 
occupy Reddy’s attention, the Kingston captain thought 
he saw a chance to steal third by a bold dash. Tug, who 
was playing far off second base, gave a yell to Reddy, 
who whirled about and threw the ball sharply to Punk 
on third base. The Kingston captain stopped himself 
before Punk could touch him, and turning, made an 
effort to regain second base ; but before he had gone far 
he found Tug confronting him with the ball, and he made 
for third again. The ball beat him there also, and when 
he whirled back he found Tug closing in on him. His 


178 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


runs backward and forward grew shorter and shorter. 
Now he made a desperate charge for second base and ran 
full tilt at Tug. Tug jumped aside, and in doing so 
fumbled the ball Punk threw to him. After juggling it 
a fatal second he flung it hard to Jumbo, who had run 
round to replace him at second j but the throw was wild 
and went past Jumbo and down the field gaily to Pretty. 

The Kingston captain recovered himself before he had 
reached second base, and sped toward third. Feeling in 
his bones the condition of the Lakerim team, he did not 
stop there, but struck out for home, cutting a wide swath 
round the foul-line. 

When Pretty reached the ball he made the mistake of 
throwing it only to second instead of straight for home. 
Tug, noting that the Kingston man from first base was 
already past him and nearing third, hoped to throw the 
captain out at home, and hurled the ball furiously at 
Heady. To his utter horror, the ball slipped out at the 
side of his hand and went out between third and left field. 
Sleepy, seeing that it was too late for haste on his part, 
walked slowly to the ball and tossed it to the pitcher, 
while the Kingstonians barked the Academy yell like a 
pack of beagles. 

Reddy determined to strike the next man out. He 
threw a curve that the Kingston captain recognized, and 
knocked high in the air. It came down on the border-line 
between right and center field. 

B. J. and Pretty both made for it j hearing a warning 
yell from Tug, and not distinguishing which one he des- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


179 


ignated, each stopped short, and looked at the other. 
Then both made another dive for the ball, and only suc- 
ceeded in running into each other, while the ball fell at 
their feet. Then both of them reached for it at the same 
time, and so hampered each other that the Kingston 
man made second base on what should never have given 
him even first. Then Reddy pitched wildly, and though 
Heady made two or three beautiful stops with one hand, 
one crazy ball went past him to the back-stop, and the 
Kingston man made third. 

Rather than risk a base-hit, Reddy now intentionally 
gave the next batter his base on balls, whereupon Heady 
waxed furious and walked down toward the pitcher’s box. 
Reddy met him half-way, and the two had an interesting 
conference, in which each laid the blame on the other. 
It looked as if there would be the usual display of bro- 
therly love, but Tug separated them, and then the game 
went on. 

The next batter sent a furious grounder into the right 
field. It brought home the man on third base, and landed 
the batter safely on first. But the man who was forced 
to second ran into the ball as it crossed the base-line, and 
was declared out. As Jumbo remarked indignantly, the 
Kingston men had to put themselves out. 

The man on first base made a splendid run for second 
after the ball had left Reddy’s hands for the next pitch. 
Heady caught it, tore off his mask, stepped away from the 
batter, and attempted that hardest of base-ball throws, a 
put-out from home to second. This throw was the wild- 


180 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


est of all that wild inning, and the base-rnnner came 
home on it. Eight of the Lakerim men were beginning 
to tear their hair in hopeless grief, and wondering when 
the end of that dismal inning would come. Only one of 
the Nine was calm, and that was Sleepy. Calm was a 
habit of his. He suffered from chronic calm. 

When the next Kingston batter whirled high in the 
air a long, soaring fly, Sleepy gaged it perfectly, and 
jogged toward it with the utmost ease, arriving at just 
the right spot at just the right moment, and gathered it 
in with an easy little scoop that brought a long sigh of 
relief from Lakerim. 

The next ball struck— for the Kingston team had found 
Reddy out completely— was a straight, hard drive over 
Tug’s head, but he leaped in air, and, stretching up both his 
hands, caught it. He looked like an exclamation-point as 
he poised over second base, and an exclamation-point was 
needed to express the delight felt by the Dozen. Score, 
10 to 10. 

“I thought that we were banished for life,” said B. J., 
quoting from his favorite novels. 

When Tug came in he had a serious look on his face. 
He went to Reddy and Heady, and told them that they 
would better rest and give the second battery a chance. 
The twins objected violently, and said that they had been 
to blame for none of the runs, while the other men had 
played a wretched game. 

“I admit,” said Tug, “you fellows made no breaks, 
while the rest of us did ; but because the rest of the play- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


181 


ers are a lot of butter-fingers is all the more reason why 
the battery should be reliable. And you must admit, 
Reddy, that they are on to your curves, and simply knocked 
you out of the box this last inning.” 

Still the twins resisted j but Tug was thinking of the 
interests of the team as a whole, and for its sake he would 
not flatter any one of its members. So the twins finally 
yielded as gracefully as they could. 

The panicky feeling of the sixth inning extended to the 
batting of the seventh, and Lakerim could not get a man 
beyond second base. When the Kingstons came to the 
bat they found a new battery, of which Bobbles was the 
catcher. B. J. had been called in from the field to pitch, 
and so Quiz had been called from the bench to take his 
place. 

B. J. suffered from stage-fright, and though he clenched 
his teeth and exerted his resistless will to the utmost, as 
all good handbooks advise, he was batted for a three-base 
hit and one two-base hit and two one-base hits, out of 
which finally only two runs were made. It is only just to 
Reddy and Heady to say that they were sorry to see the 
rival battery being lambasticated so viciously. 

The eighth inning opened with Lakerim’s beautiful lead 
cut down not only to nothing, but even below nothing 5 
the Dozen found themselves two runs to the bad, with a 
score of 10 to 12. They were used to uphill work, how- 
ever, and settled down to do business in a businesslike 
manner. 

Sleepy got first base this time by being hit by a pitched 


182 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


ball, and though the ball hurt he was glad enough of the 
black-and-blue badge of courage for the sake of the posi- 
tion it gave him on first base. Thanks to carefully placed 
batting, his refusal to take any risks in base-running did 
not leave him stranded, but brought him comfortably 
home for the only run Lakerim could make that inning. 
But though Lakerim made only one run, it held Kingston 
down to the same number, and there was at least no gain. 

The all-important ninth inning found the score 11 to 
13. Three runs were necessary for a victory, and to the 
tremendous delight of Lakerim those three runs were 
fairly earned by good clean batting and base-running that 
was daring without foolishness. 

But, through no fault of theirs, the Kingston team 
managed to eke out one run and tie the game. At least 
one extra inning was necessary. The score was amateur- 
ishly large, but it was early in the season, and, after all, 
many a professional game has footed up a bigger total on 
an off day. 

The tenth inning opened with grim determination in 
eighteen hearts. Punk came to the bat and vowed that 
he would knock the hide off the ball and bring in one or 
more home runs with one blow ; but he struck so hard that 
he struck out, and though, he threw his bat to the ground 
in violent wrath, his energy was useless. He was done. 

Then Jumbo appeared. He was so stubby that the 
pitcher had great difficulty in giving a ball that was high 
enough without being over his head, and low enough 
without skimming the ground. Jumbo persevered in wait- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


183 


ing, and, by an appearance of great willingness to strike, 
reached the haven of first base on four balls. Sawed-Off 
came to the bat and smote with all his might, but the only 
sphere he injured was the atmosphere— he did nothing to 
the ball 5 and though on his last chance, after two strikes 
and no balls, he nearly broke himself in two with the fury 
of his effort, he managed only to scratch out a measly 
little fly that flew just back of the short-stop’s head. 
Jumbo managed to scud to second base without being 
caught, and Sawed-Off got safely to first. 

Bobbles was next at bat, and it was his first chance 
with the stick. He, too, brandished his bat so fiercely 
that he took little aim. After knocking a series of 
fouls that made an errand boy of the catcher, Bobbles 
dealt the air such a swashing slash that he thought the 
ball must surely disappear over the farthest fence, but 
found that he had scraped off a little punt that buzzed 
at his very feet. Yet it served its turn, and while the 
catcher was looking over his head for the sure foul and the 
pitcher was trying to gather himself together and chase 
the ball which was spinning like a top, the three men 
managed to secure themselves on their respective bases 
by the most ardent running. 

And now came Sleepy to the bat— Sleepy, of all men, at 
a time when a manufacturer of home runs was so badly 
needed ! While the other members of the team were hav- 
ing a chills-and-fever of suspense, Sleepy strolled up to the 
home plate, and went through his old performance of dust- 
ing it with his cap and rapping the plate three times. 


184 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Then he settled in his place as if he had come to stay a 
week, and looked expectantly at the pitcher. 

The fishy calm of Sleepy came nearer to rattling the 
pitcher than all the yelling and prancing of the other 
players. Sleepy waited patiently until he was quite ready. 
At length he saw what he thought was just the right ball. 
It curved outward just before it reached him, and reckon- 
ing that it would meet his bat just at the end, he swung 
his club up into position, firmly but easily. He rather let 
the ball strike the bat than the bat the ball, and a crack 
as of a pistol announced the fly of a long liner over the 
head of the right field. Jumbo came home safely with 
Sawed-Off at his heels, and Sleepy, thinking he had done 
his share, made no effort to reach second base, and was 
left there with Bobbles on third base, when Tug sent a 
grounder to the Kingston short-stop. 

It was now Kingston’s last chance to win the game ; and 
another panic such as that of the sixth inning would give 
it to them without a doubt. Still, two runs were two runs, 
and Lakerim hurried out to its position hopefully. Hope, 
to be sure, seemed to be shattered when Tug let a hard 
drive pass through his fingers— Tug, the captain, Tug, of 
all men ! 

The next man at the bat died on first, but he advanced 
the Kingston man one base, to second. A short bunt to 
the short-stop put a Kingston man on first base, but was 
not a strong enough hit to carry the other man to third. 
B. J. made the effort of his life at this moment and struck 
the next man out. But the man after him caught the 


THEEE WAS NOTHING TO DO BUT GIVE A BACKWARD LEAP AFTER IT 







THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


187 


ball fairly and planted it where it would do Kingston 
most good, and just short of the reach of Quiz, who 
made a beautiful run for it and picked it up on the first 
bound. 

With three men on bases and two men out, it was a 
moment that tested the nerves of all the Lakerim men— of 
all but Sleepy, who was trusting to luck to get the third 
man out and give Lakerim the game without further 
play. A ten-inning game was just one degree longer 
than he had any desire for. So far was he, indeed, from 
the intense excitement of the other eight that he had 
left his regular position, and sauntered across to a 
buckboard that had drawn up close to the foul-line near 
the fence. 

He was there talking to a girl he knew, and she had 
just thrown him a chocolate cream, when he heard a loud 
yell from the crowd, and turning saw the ball coming 
toward him. The Kingston captain had lined it out. He 
had caught the ball nicely in the center and put every 
ounce of muscle into the stroke. The fly went high over 
the third base, and it was hard to tell whether it was a fair 
or a foul fly. The umpire ran forward to the plate and 
looked down the line, hoping to decide where it fell. 
Three Kingston base-runners, knowing that if it were fair 
their side was out anyway, made the best of their way for 
home, hoping that the fly would not be caught. 

And no one had any idea that it would be caught, for 
the place of its destination was evidently beyond the 
reach of any left-fielder. 


188 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


But it was Sleepy’s nature to be in the wrong place, and 
it was Sleepy’s luck at this moment to be in the wrong 
place at the right time. He would never have run for the 
fly had he been in his usual position, for he would have 
thought it only a useless effort ; but now that he chanced 
to be where he was, he trotted into a proper position and 
watched for it as it wavered on its path, following every 
swerve of the ball with a cautious movement to the right 
or the left, backward or forward. Still, it was a most 
whimsical fly, and just as it came whizzing to earth he 
found himself too far under it. 

There was nothing to do but give a backward leap after 
it. He made the trial, and though his right hand fell 
short, his left clutched the ball and held it— held it even 
though it brought him to the ground. He picked him- 
self up, and thinking of the dinner that was waiting for 
him, and not heeding the applause showered upon his 
superb feat by even the Kingstomans, sauntered for 
home munching the chocolate cream he had kept in his 
cheek. 

The Lakerim men crowded around and hugged him 
and wrung his hand, and even the Kingston captain 
slapped him on the back and called him a great player. 

Sleepy thought they were all making a most unneces- 
sary fuss. 

Jumbo grinned and said to him: “You sleepy rabbit, 
the ball just hit you in the hand, and you were too lazy 
to drop it.” 

As the Dozen huddled together in the car that bore 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


189 


him homeward with their victory, Sleepy, with his head 
comfortably settled in the plush, drawled : 

11 The Kingston captain said that his Academy could 
not very well oppose onr admission to the League any 
longer now, after this game ” 

And he added, as he fell into a doze : “I hope we can 
bring the Troy Latin School around too, and then—” 


XII 


0 one will ever know just what Sleepy was going to 



say about the Troy Latin School, for he dropped off 
in a doze in the midst of his sentence as suddenly as a 
small boy walking along a sidewalk disappears down a 
coal-hole left open by mistake. 

It is probable, however, that Sleepy was going to say 
that since the Dozen had trounced the Kingston men in 
base-ball, the number of academies that opposed the 
admission of Lakerim into the Interscholastic League 
would be so much reduced that if the Troy Latin School 
could be also taught to know its betters, the League 
would have to take in the High School in self-defense. 

You must not think, from reading the different chap- 
ters of this history, that the Dozen had any wonderful 
fairy-story charm for winning all the games they played 
in. Far from it! They were beaten often, and some- 
times very badly. Sometimes they got that disease 
which is something like the mumps— that disease called 
the a swelled head.” When they caught this they were 
pretty sure to have the swelling reduced by the clever 
work of their opponents. On the other hand, when the 


190 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


191 


Dozen was at its best, and played its part in a business- 
like way, every man working for the club first and him- 
self and his own glory next, it was pretty certain to come 
out in the lead. The fellows learned from bitter experi- 
ence that “ grand-stand playing,” or jealousy of one an- 
other, generally brought disaster on the whole Twelve. 
And so their games were an education to them. 

The reason I like to describe at length only the games 
they won is that it seems so much wiser and pleasanter to 
dwell on the good qualities of our friends. Every one 
has faults, — it is no great honor to have many of them, — 
and so it takes no great wisdom to pick out the flaws in 
the people we know ; sometimes it takes pretty sharp eyes 
to find their good points. 

But this is n’t getting on with the story. 

The Lakerim base-ball nine played a number of rattling 
good games that brought a deal of money into the trea- 
sury, though not enough to bring the wealth of the 
Twelve back to the high-water mark they had reached 
before they paid the first money down to the contractors. 
After they had got themselves well in hand for base-ball, 
they found that the games they played were about prac- 
tice enough, and some of them spent their leisure time 
rowing on the lake or on the little river that dawdled 
along half a mile from the town. 

Before a great while eight of the men showed they 
would be promising material for a crew, and it was 
decided that, as they were trying all the other sports, 
they might as well include rowing; so they did. 
n 


192 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Punk was the likeliest oarsman of the lot ; there was 
something about the terrible earnestness and the grim 
steadiness of rowing that appealed to him and made him 
a better man than other fellows more brilliant and more 
lively could have been. The Dozen had an old eight- 
oared barge that had come down to them some way or 
other, and in this they practised ardently. They felt 
that if they could only have a new boat, built on the 
latest lines, they could at least stand a fair chance with 
the Troy Latin School, which, for all its haughtiness, did 
not boast a particularly expert crew. But racing-shells 
cost money, and Punk saw no way to buy one unless 
the funds in the treasury could be suddenly increased. 

One day, after school, he was setting forth his woes to 
the girl who stood next to the Dozen in his heart. As 
you might expect, such a slow-going fellow would pick 
out the liveliest girl in town for his best friend. Sud- 
denly he looked round, and she had utterly disappeared. 
After a moment’s wonderment, he sauntered on home, 
and thought nothing more about her mysterious disap- 
pearance j but the next day he learned that she had been 
concocting a scheme to earn the club some ready cash. 

Her plan was not very original, and not very new, but 
she made up for this in the energy she showed in car- 
rying it out. There was to be a great and glorious 
“ social,” not given in a church, but in the High School. 
The twelve best girls of the Dozen were to furnish ice- 
cream and cake at the highest cost they dared. 

These twelve girls were to take care of the business 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


193 


arrangements, sell all the tickets they could, and collect 
all the money they could, and turn over the profits to the 
club. In fact, the girls called themselves the “ Lakerim 
Athletic Annex.” 

The boys of the club were to furnish the entertain- 
ment that was to draw the people out. 

Thanks to the earnest efforts of the Annex, the club 
found a great audience gathered in the school-house. 
The expenses were almost nothing, and the sandwiches 
were all eaten, and well paid for. The ice-cream and 
cakes sold as if they were hot, and the lemonade-cooler 
had to be filled and refilled with water many times after 
the lemons were all gone. 

The entertainment furnished by the Athletic Club 
proved very conclusively that the boys were better fitted 
for the athletic field than for the platform. They were 
all very red and dressed up and nervous, and their knees 
shook like the rattle-bones of a minstrel show. 

President Tug opened the ceremonies with a speech. 
He exhibited as much dignity as a boy can who has so 
many lumps in his throat that he thinks he is swallowing 
a pump-chain. Tug explained the nature of the club 
(which everybody knew), and its ambitions (which every- 
body knew). He ended with a fine appeal for help, that 
brought forth a generous response— of applause. 

Then Reddy and Heady came in like the Siamese 
twins, and sang 11 Ship Ahoy ! ” At the end of the duet 
Reddy's voice broke, and Heady got off the key. So, in 
the midst of much hand-clapping, and some laughter that 


194 


THE LA KERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


could n’t be helped, they hurried off the platform and 
out into the school yard, where each one blamed the 
other in such a loud tone that their new duet was heard 
inside, and seriously interfered with B. J.'s recitation, “ I 
stood on the bridge at midnight.” The audience, remem- 
bering the exploit of bridge- jumping that gave B. J. his 
title, listened to his solemn speech with a broad grin on 
its face. 

Jumbo now appeared, and did some wonderful feats 
with Indian clubs. He brandished them as lightly as 
toothpicks in all sorts of curves and didos, and they 
flashed here, there, and everywhere like solid gold; but 
when one of them slipped and flew through the air, and, 
after just skipping the Principal's head, banged against 
one of the pillars, the gold proved to be only gilt paper 
pasted on. 

Next Pretty appeared, and sang a tenor solo in an 
uncertain voice that shot up when it should have gone 
down, and slid down when it should have soared to the 
top notes. But he got an encore, and sang again ; yet I 
must say that his appearance was much more agreeable 
than his voice. 

After him Sawed-Off gave an exhibition of weight- 
lifting. The ease with which he held big masses of iron 
out straight, or “curled” them, or shoved them up 
toward the ceiling, led one of the boys who was not a 
member of the club to remark quite audibly that the 
dumb-bell was hollow and weighed about half a pound. 
Just as he had finished this speech the dumb-bell slipped 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


195 


and struck the floor with a crash, breaking one of the 
boards of the platform into smithereens. The visitor 
watched the rest of the exhibition silently, and Sawed- 
Off's goose-egg biceps won a lond recall. 

Quiz was next, and delivered “ Spartacus to the Gladi- 
ators " in a squeaky voice. 

Punk recited a long oration of Daniel Webster's, and 
Bobbles addressed the audience as “ Friends, Romans, 
countrymen ! " Which flattered them vastly. 

History read an essay called “ Night Brings Out the 
Stars." And since he brought in all the big words he 
could weave in, Jumbo whispered to Sawed-Off: 

u Night ought to bring out a dictionary, too." 

By the time History had finished reading his long, 
high-flown sentences the audience was getting restless; 
and when Sleepy appeared for the final number, and 
with his crooked base-ball fingers played “Home, Sweet 
Home," with variations,— accent on the variations,— the 
people were very glad to take the hint. They went 
home convinced that the Dozen must be pretty fine 
athletes since they were such poor entertainers ; but as 
they did not take their money back with them, the 
Twelve made no complaint. 

With the money gained from the “ blow-out," as they 
called it, they were able to get a good racing-shell at 
a bargain, and it was shipped to them immediately. 
When it was out of its wrappings and floating grace- 
fully on the river, Punk gazed on it lovingly, and pat- 
ted its smooth cedar sides as if it were a more beauti- 


196 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


ful steed than any of the Thousand and One Arabian 
Nightmares. 

At the first sight of the new shell, the Twelve decided 
to send a red-hot challenge to the Troy Latin School. 
After a period of waiting that tried their patience sorely, 
the challenge was begrudgingly accepted. Troy thought 
Lakerim would be a good thing to practise on. 

Meanwhile the training of the crew was going on 
vigorously under Punk’s management. The fellows 
dieted wisely, and not too well, and before long got the 
hang of things so that they rowed in fairly good form. 
Each man learned to fasten his eyes on the neck of the 
man in front of him, and to keep time with him exactly, 
with no glances to this side or that, and no attempt to 
do all the rowing for himself. The eight learned to 
catch the water together; to throw the greater part of 
their effort into the earlier part of the stroke, and then 
to u pull it through ” ; to feather the oars without splash- 
ing, to get them out without clipping, and to drop them 
back into the water with just the proper “ ker-chug ! ” or 
“ rotten egg,” as it is poetically called. 

Punk studied every man, and coached or argued with 
or trained him until he learned to use his arms as if they 
were straps, and bring the oar back to his breast without 
swinging the body off from the straight line, not to dip 
too deep, and yet to cover his oar well, and, above all, 
not to let himself get rattled and out of time with the 
seven others. 

Punk studied even the little eddies that each oar sent 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


197 


back, and by the depth of these and their neatness and 
the number of their bubbles learned to pick out the 
shirkers from the workers, and to tell just how each man 
was rowing, as if each eddy were an autograph writ in 
water. 

Punk himself looked to be, as he was, just the ideal 
oarsman. His arms were long and big-boned ; his back 
was a chart of anatomy ; his hips were wide, and his 
loins full of strength, and his legs had neither too much 
nor too little sinew. His lungs were a magnificent pair 
of stout bellows, and his heart was steady as an eight-day 
clock. So he was made the Captain and the Stroke. 

B. J. was Number One in the bow, and Bobbles was 
Number Two, and the Third man was Quiz, whose 
bicycle had given him good legs; Sawed-Off, being the 
heaviest, was put in the center, and next were Reddy and 
Heady; and the Seventh man— the all-important Seventh 
man who must watch the Stroke and pass on to the rest 
all of his motions— was Tug, of course. 

History, being the smallest of the Twelve, was made 
Coxswain. They wanted him to leave his glasses off so 
as to reduce his weight ; but the first time he tried it he 
nearly steered them aground, so they decided they must 
carry those additional ounces of cargo. 

Jumbo was broken-hearted at being separated from 
Sawed-Off, and Sawed-Off wanted to quit the crew, but 
after much argument the sworn chums were appeased. 
Jumbo consented to stay ashore and help them with his 
good wishes and advice. Sleepy tried hard to make the 


198 


THE LA KERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


crew, because he said rowing just suited him; all you 
had to do was to get into the swing, and row on in your 
sleep. But somehow Punk could n’t see it quite in that 
light. Pretty had the build of an oarsman, but did not 
enjoy the hard, steady grind of it; so there was no 
change made in the eight as Punk first picked them out. 

As the all-eventful day of the race drew near, the 
beloved boat was packed on a train as anxiously as if its 
shell were that of an egg, and Punk stayed by to guard 
it. The morning of the race the boys arrived at Tro}'. 
(It was not Troy, New York, nor the Troy Homer and 
Yergil told about; you ’ll find it on the map near 
Lakerim.) 

The boat was carefully taken to the water’s edge and 
placed, bottom up, on sawhorses ; then Punk went over 
it, touching up its coat here and there, and readjusting 
the outriggers and all the parts of the boat with an eye 
like a microscope. 

The fellows took a trial spin over the course and back, 
in the bracing air of the river and the morning. They 
paddled easily but scientifically as long as they were 
under the eyes of the Trojans ; but when they were out 
of sight around the one bend on the course, Punk told 
Coxswain History to yell, “ Hit her up ! ” and they ran 
up the stroke to a fierce sweep that sent the shell singing 
through the water. 

After a good light lunch and a brisk walk, they came 
back to their quarters and rested while the crowd began 
to gather along both sides of the river. There were tugs 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


199 


and excursion-steamers, and a ferry-boat, and a house- 
boat or two, and innumerable skiffs huddling together 
and hunting out the best positions, until the quiet old 
river wondered if the world were coming to an end, or if 
all these people were celebrating its birthday— it had had 
so many birthdays that it had no idea what one this 
would be. But though it had long since got into the 
habit of reckoning a thousand years as one year, this 
was the first birthday party it had had since the warriors 
of two tribes of Indians fought in birch-bark canoes 
upon its placid breast. 

Along the side of the river ran a railroad, whose loud 
whistle often reminded the old stream of the war-cries of 
the lost children of the forest. This railroad was to send 
a special train along to follow the race, and some of its 
cars were made gorgeous with the banners of the Trojan 
tribe ; but Lakerim men were proud to see that others of 
these cars were still more beautiful with the ribbons and 
flags of their own town. 

Soon after the judges’ boat had taken its place, and all 
the preliminaries were settled, the Troy Latin School 
crew issued from its boax-house, carrying a long paper 
shell, placed it delicately on the stream, stepped into it 
gingerly, and rowed into position with an easy grace 
that showed great confidence. Cheers and shrieking 
whistles greeted them in huge force; but when the 
Lakerim eight swung gently into position, though there 
were not so many voices to whoop it up, the enthusiasm 
of the cheers more than atoned for their lack of volume. 


200 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Then followed a deep silence, while the sixteen oars- 
men slipped out of their sweaters and bent forward like 
drawn bows, waiting for the pistol-shot that was to set 
these steel springs into a frenzy of action. 

“ Attention ! ” 
u Ready ! ” 

“Bang!” 

On the instant sixteen stout lads lifted themselves 
from the sliding-seats, and flung their bodies backward 
with a lunge that fairly lifted the two shells out of the 
water. Thirty-two biceps swelled big as they pulled 
oars home to chests in a clean, steady line. Sixteen oars 
flashed through the air like homing pigeons, buried 
themselves again beneath the water, and dug viciously 
at it again and again, and ceaselessly. 

Punk was so methodical and steady himself that his 
main idea had been to make clocks out of his men, with 
oars for pendulums. He knew that in rowing, above all 
sports, the ideal for the oarsmen to strive toward is to 
make themselves as nearly as possible only perfect parts 
of a soulless machine; each must run smoothly, and 
swing in perfect alignment. 

In his determined efforts to train his men out of all 
semblance to excitable individuals, he had given little 
attention to teaching them a brilliant start. He knew 
that a fine beginning might, after all, prove to be only 
the sputter of a man whose strength went out in a flash 
instead of burning in steady blaze. 

After the first three or four violent strokes, as Punk 



THE BOAT KACE 






THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


203 


looked out of the tail of his eye he could barely see the 
stern of the Troy boat ; and he knew that they led him 
by nearly half a length. 

History, the coxswain, was mightily excited at the 
seeming superiority of the rivals ; but Punk calmed him 
with the two words, “Hold it,” and he set a stroke of 
thirty-six to the minute, long, dogged, telling; and the 
hysterical cheers of the Troy faction, and the toot of 
their whistles, found his ears almost deaf to the uproar. 

All he listened for was the little chunk of the oars 
when they fell into the water as one, and the little purl 
of the eddies, and the tinkle of the drops as they fell 
from the flashing blades. So long as the noise of the 
oars was not a boisterous splashing, and so long as the 
boat throbbed regularly on an even keel as it bounded 
forward, he knew they were all right. 

But out of the tail of his eye he watched the tail of the 
Troy boat. When he lost sight of it he quickened the 
stroke, and when it reappeared he lowered the stroke j he 
made no effort to gain. 

The Troy men, however, were working like Trojans, 
and rowing themselves out in their efforts to shake off 
this despised Lakerim eight. But bend as they would, 
and dig as they would, and grunt as they would, they 
could not effect any permanent change in their positions. 
It was almost as if the Lakerim boat had grappled them, 
and they felt, as they toiled, that they were pulling it as 
well as their own shell. 

When they had thus sped well along their course,— 


204 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


speeding, however, was not the word the spectators 
would have given it ; it looked like crawling to those on 
the train,— Punk felt that he was pretty well acquainted 
with the stuff the Troy men had in them. He gave the 
sign to History, and made eight hearts glad by the 
quickening of the stroke. Each of the seven men behind 
him saw the back that was his master move to and fro 
a little quicker and a little quicker, till they were all 
fairly humming. Troy responded to the spurt vigor- 
ously, and there was a pretty test. But they could not 
keep the pace Punk set them, and the Lakerim boat 
moved along their side with stubborn persistence until 
the Trojan stroke-oar could just barely see out of the tail 
of his eye the tail of the Lakerim boat. Then he lost it 
from view, and to save him could not find it again. 

Slowly, slowly, Lakerim pulled away till the oarsmen 
in the Trojan bow lost sight of the boat; till the amazed 
Troy folk on the train that puffed alongside saw daylight 
between the bow of their own boat and the stern of the 
Lakerim shell ; till the inch grew to a foot, and the foot 
to a yard, and the yard to a boat-length, and the boat- 
length to a yard of boat-lengths. And there Punk held 
her. 

The Troy School men spurted and spurted until their 
tongues almost hung out of their mouths— till there was 
no more spurt in their nerves. They rowed out of line, 
“out of the boat/’ as they say, each man for himself; 
they splashed and caught crabs and lost the stroke gener- 
ally, until the distracted coxswain, after yelling in vain 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


205 


at each of the stampeded crew, was forced to slow down 
the stroke and get them together again. 

Punk’s men might have had the same panic under the 
same circumstances j but now they were far in the lead, 
and the stampede in the Troy shell gave them three 
more lengths to add to their three. They could see for 
themselves the disastrous effects that came about when 
each man thought to save the day for himself, and 
slipped his cog. So they rowed merrily along, tired and 
panting, but rejoicing. 

And now the flags they had passed told them they 
were nearing home, and they were already planning 
what celebration they should give to their victory. Even 
Punk— the sedate, mechanical Punk— forgot his solem- 
nity, and grinned at History like the Cheshire cat. 

And then— 

And then— 

A little rip, and a sudden snap, and a loud crash! 
His oar had broken ! His good spruce oar had played 
the traitor and failed him just in the moment of his 
victory ! Instinctively, for a moment, he continued the 
motions of rowing with the fragment he held in his 
hand 5 then, in stupefaction, he dropped it, and saw the 
two parts of the blade drifting away from him. His- 
tory’s eyes were almost popping out of his head. 

And now Punk has ceased to bend to and fro; and 
Tug, who has seen the whole catastrophe, almost stops 
rowing ; and the rest slow down their stroke and merely 
paddle. 


206 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


For a moment only, Punk sits bewildered} then, with 
a cry, u Row, all ! ” and with a swift command to History, 
u Hit her up ! ” he rises in his place, brushes the little 
coxswain to one side, and places one foot on the keel- 
piece of the shell, and, bracing himself, leaps head first 
into the water! The boat gives a lurch, then steadies 
herself, as the seven oarsmen understand, and take up 
their task where it had broken off. The loss of the best 
oarsman in the shell is a grievous loss ; and he is captain 
too ! But if he were only to be a 11 passenger,” his room 
was better than his company. 

A tremendous shout broke from the throats of all the 
spectators, even from the friends of the Troy faction, at 
the plucky act of the Lakerim captain. The Troy cox- 
swain, however, saw the accident with delight, and saw 
in it a hope to win the race. For he thought it better to 
beat seven men than to be beaten by eight. 

In the trouble that fell upon the Lakerim crew the 
Troy shell recovered much of the intervening distance, 
and hardly two lengths remained to Lakerim when the 
seven men got back into the old swing. It was all a 
question of distance and time. The boys rejoiced that 
they were so near home, and determined to fight the 
battle to the end of their strength. 

The Troy boat came loping along with a spurt. Then 
the Lakerim men got themselves well under way, and the 
Troy superiority was not so marked. The Trojans 
* gained, gained, of course— but slowly, however surely. 
The lungs and legs of the Lakerim seven ached like mad. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


207 


But though Punk was absent from them in the flesh, he 
was with them in spirit, and they kept their heads and 
cooperated with one another magnificently. Even if they 
lost, they would lose in good form. 

And now the interval that had widened between them 
and the Troy boat was closing. Once more the bow and 
the stern are even, and the Troy eight moves along the 
Lakerim seven, notch by notch, man by man. But His- 
tory calls out desperately to each boy by name for one 
last effort, and they all bend to the oars like fiends. Tug 
and the others pry upon the water until their boat an- 
swers in leaps like a hound. The oar-blades clench the 
stream as the teeth of the oarsmen clench. Then, with 
one last heave that seems to drain their strength down 
to their very toes, they lift her across the line into vic- 
tory-half a length ahead. 

The Lakerim seven did not faint,— a winning crew 
never does,— but they were as near swooning like hero- 
ines in old-fashioned novels as modern heroes ever were. 
They were not, however, half over their weakness before 
they began to worry about their captain, who had, as 
they say, “ fallen outside of the breastworks .” The last 
they had seen of him was when his head disappeared in 
the crowd of boats following in the wake of the race. 
They felt sure that he had been picked up at once. 

But Punk had not fared so well as they thought. The 
winter chill of the river had not yet yielded to the mild 
persuasion of the spring ; and when he rose to the sur- 
face after the shock of the dive he felt almost half frozen 


208 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


with the cold, and he choked as he came up and swal- 
lowed a stomachful of water, and barely saved himself 
from being beaten over the head by the Trojan oars ; for 
he was so bewildered that he struck out in the wrong 
direction. 

He kept himself afloat, however, till the leading tug 
came along. But the tug was under some headway, and 
since he tried to get by on his right, and it tried to 
pass him on its left, he was again almost run under, 
and hardly saved himself by a great fling to the left, 
just as the tug swept by. The current of the river was 
so strong that he went swishing past out of reach of the 
boat-hooks and hands held out to save him. 

Then the suction of the screw began to pull at him 
and to drag him toward the whirling blades. 


XIII 



I HOUGH the hands that were dragging Punk 


X through the water toward the stern of the boat 
were invisible, they seemed no less real and merciless, 
and they haled him toward where the screw-propeller was 
viciously slashing the river, as a lamb is compelled 
toward the shears. The seething and the swirling of 
the water turned up by the screw deafened and dis- 
tracted Punk, but he gave at the critical moment a 
desperate lunge and leap that carried him away from 
this danger to the next. 

For by the time he had got his head again he was 
on the point of being run down by a sneaking little 
naphtha-launch. Then there followed one of those scenes 
that occur when you run into a man on the street and 
try to dodge past him : when you duck to the right he 
does the same ; when you bounce to the left there he is ; 
then each of you stands still for a moment and glares hard 
at the other fellow, and thinks hard what a fool he is any- 
way ; then you both give a sudden bolt to one side— the 
same side, of course ; and so on, until one or the other 
of you slips past by accident. 

12 209 


210 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


This was Punk’s predicament with the launch, only it 
was a matter of life and death with him. As he swam 
to pass it on the left side the man at the wheel turned 
the nose of the launch in the same direction ; then Punk 
whirled about in the water and swam the other way, 
and the pilot tried to pass on that side. There was 
not much time for this hide-and-seek, but there was 
enough of it to rob Punk of his last drop of self-confi- 
dence before the launch slid by him safely. 

So eager was he to be out of those dangerous waters 
that he seized hold of the first skiff that passed him, and 
scrambled in for dear life, without stopping to knock, 
almost spilling into the water the oarsman and the 
pretty girl he had with him. The young couple, how- 
ever, accepted his apologies, and told him to make 
himself at home. So there he sat, dripping and shivering, 
till he was restored to his friends, not much the worse 
for wear; and he lived to row many another race for 
the Lakerim Athletic Club. 

Through June and July the base-ball nine and the 
oarsmen were busy winning games and money and glory 
for the club. In August they thought it was time for a 
vacation, and a proposition for a club camp on one of 
the islets in the lake was heartily agreed to. 

So the top of one fine morning found them rowing and 
sailing away from Lakerim to a little isle which they 
named anew, calling it the Dozen. The dozen what 
they did not trouble to explain ; but the island is known 
to this day, to everybody that knows it at all, as the 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


211 


Island of the Dozen. On it they planted a flagstaff 
bearing a flag on which were twelve stars, arranged 
like this: 

* * 


# 

* * * 

Some of the Twelve crossed the lake, as I have said, 
in rowboats, and some in a sail-boat j and you might have 
noted that the sail of this boat was the one that had saved 
the hockey-players from freezing to death that cold night 
on Buzzard’s Rock. 

But B. J. rode in no rowboat, nor in any sail-boat ; he 
alone of all the Twelve paddled his own canoe. He had 
made it himself, with infinite pains and almost infinite 
mistakes ; but when it was at length completed it proved 
to be worth the while. 

B. J. made more mistakes than ever when he tried to 
learn to ride in it; but as he practised in his bathing- 
trunks, there was little damage done, and at length 
he handled it as safely as if it were a flat-bottomed 
scow. 

So much in love was B. J. with his canoe and all the 
outfit he had collected that he thought he would camp 
on his lawn at home. One night about dark he took his 


212 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


canoe and lantern out in the yard, made a bed of two 
blankets in the canoe, put a canoe-tent over it, and lay 
down in the cockpit to sleep. His father and mother 
objected to this at first, but he finally won them over to 
the scheme. Then, when he had got through persuading 
them, and had begun his first night outdoors, he wished 
they had not yielded so easily. 

Because, in the first place, the family watch-dog came 
snapping and growling around, and refused to recognize 
B. J.’s voice, or to go away until B. J. had risen from his 
warm blankets and introduced himself to the dog. Then 
the animal insisted on getting into the canoe with him ; 
and at last TL J. had to take him back to his kennel and 
chain him up. 

And then he wished he had n’t, for now he was very 
lonely and very much afraid. He had won his title B. J. 
by his once famous adventure at bridge- jumping, and he 
was as plucky in some ways as any boy could be— too 
plucky for his own good sometimes; but his specialty 
in pluck was not staying alone outdoors at night. 

And now that the dog was safely chained up, B. J. was 
sure that all the whitecaps in the United States, and all 
the bandits in Italy, and all the highwaymen of old Eng- 
land were hunting him. What they would have done 
with him when they got him, is a mystery that did not 
trouble B. J. so much as it would other people who 
realize that professional robbers are usually after some- 
thing more valuable than the pleasure of scaring small 
boys to death. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


213 


To B. J., however, each creak of the tree over him was 
the footstep of a desperado; the rustling of the wind 
at his tent was the fingers of a brigand ; and the breeze 
itself was the breath of a cutthroat. When the moon 
came out it relieved him a little; but at best it looked 
rather distant to be of much service, and he kept his 
little pocket-knife tightly clasped in his hand. 

Then, too, the canoe felt no bigger than a shoe-box, 
and as hard as a sidewalk. His bones ached and his 
muscles were cramped, and he was in as much distress 
bodily as mentally. But after lying awake preparing to 
repel boarders most of the night, it seemed that he had 
hardly dropped off to sleep when the sun came prying 
under his eyelids and would not let him snooze. So, 
drowsy as he was, he had to leave his cozy bunk. And 
now that he was up hours before the earliest riser in his 
family, he was lonely indeed ; and the morning wind was 
very chilly ; and the grass was very wet ; and oh, but he 
was hungry ! 

He could not understand why his family should be so 
lazy as to lie abed after five o’clock in the morning, and 
it seemed a year before he dared move about the house, 
and two years before they were ready for breakfast. 

That night he left his canoe and his canoe-tent in the 
barn, and slept in the great soft bed he had so despised 
the night before. 

But by the time the Dozen were ready to go a-camping 
he was once more eager for outdoor life, and he paddled 
to the island with complete delight. 


214 


THE LA KERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


When the Twelve left Lakerim they paid a last visit 
to the club-house. The foundations had all been laid, 
and the carpenters were now putting up the framework 
of what was to be the club 7 s future home; and their 
last memory of it was as of a skeleton standing in his 
bare bones. 

Once the camp was chosen and the tents pitched, each 
of the Twelve went about the occupation that suited him 
best. 

History had brought so many books that they threat- 
ened to capsize the rowboat he was in ; and now he fell 
to reading all the Waverley Novels, in what he called 
“ their chronological sequence . 77 

Sleepy found a soft moss bank overlooking the lake, 
where he could throw out his fish-line, and lie there, and 
let the hooks do all the rest. When any fish came his 
way they usually had to catch themselves, and wake him 
up by their tugging, before he would bring them ashore. 

Tug and Punk set about exploring the Island of the 
Dozen, and clearing away the underbrush from the camp 
and from the paths they laid out. 

Sawed-Off and Jumbo were the cooks of the camp, and 
nothing more can be said in praise of the digestions of 
the Twelve than that they survived the fearful and 
wonderful dishes these two chums concocted. 

Bobbles and Pretty usually went sailing; and one 
time when Bobbles was taking in the jib because the 
breeze was too strong for it, and they were going with 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


215 


lee rail awash, Pretty grew lazy and fastened the main- 
sheet to a cleat. Accordingly, the first little squall took 
them over, and Pretty found himself floundering in the 
water. His only regret, however, was that his ducking 
proved that the colors in his favorite necktie would run. 

Quiz went about looking for trouble, and finally dis- 
turbed a large black snake that was minding its own 
business and merely wished to be let alone; and Quiz 
had a lively time before he cleared the island of what 
seemed to be its only snake. It was a shame to kill the 
original owner of the island; but there has never been 
much good feeling between men and snakes since a 
snake started the trouble. 

Reddy and Heady spent a good deal of their time row- 
ing a two-oared boat ; or, I should say, they spent most 
of their time quarreling as to the direction in which they 
wanted to row. The consequence was that when one 
pulled straight forward the other backed water, and a 
large part of their time was consumed in describing 
beautiful circles. 

As for B. J., he passed most of his days in his canoe, or 
out of it— capsizing it, and climbing into it, now pad- 
dling lazily, and now working up a great speed. 

One afternoon, History, having finished “ Ivanhoe,” felt 
in an adventurous frame of mind, and decided that he 
would honor B. J7s canoe by taking it out for a little spin. 

“ Better put on your bathing-suit,” said B. J. 

u Oh, no,” said History ; “I hn not afraid of such a 
little thing as that ! ” 


216 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“ Canoes are like bicycles/’ said Sawed-Off, who was 
scrubbing a saucepan with sand and water. “You 
can do anything when you know how, but you can do 
nothing when you don’t.” 

And Jumbo, who was paring the potatoes for supper, 
looked up and added : 

“Canoes are like bronchos before they are ‘busted/ 
History, and B. J.’s canoe will throw you six ways for 
Sunday.” 

“Ah-h, that ’s all nonsense,” History replied scorn- 
fully. 11 It ’s simply a question of keeping your equilib- 
rium. If you don’t lose that you ’re all right.” 

As neither Jumbo nor Sawed-Off was quite sure what 
an equilibrium was, they did not tell him that it is an 
easy thing to lose. They decided that the canoe would 
convince History of its bad temper in short order, and 
no further objections were made, excepting that B. J. 
stood by to see that History did not put his feet through 
the side. 

Jumbo and Sawed-Off went out on the little pier Tug 
and Punk had built, and held the canoe until History 
was seated comfortably; and then Sawed-Off gave the 
boat one tremendous shove, and it slipped far out over 
the water. 

History gave just one wild dig with the paddle, and 
then his feet flew up to where his head should have been, 
and his head flew down to where his feet should not 
have been— in the water. The canoe turned completely 
over, and floated gaily away on the waves he kicked up 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


217 


with his tremendous splashing. He tried to yell for help, 
but swallowed so much water that it sounded as if he 
were merely gargling his throat. Then he sank from 
view entirely. 

Now the boys on shore realized that they should never 
have let him try the canoe at all, for they knew that he 
could not swim. But by the time he had come up 
again, and cast one pleading look ashore, and then sunk, 
B. J. had whipped off his coat and dived from the pier. 
He swam under water, and as he rose came up just 
alongside History. 

B. J. was the best of the Twelve at swimming, and 
was almost as much at home in the water as a mud-hen. 
Then, too, he had practised swimming with all his 
clothing on and heavy shoes on his feet. So now, with 
nothing on his feet but light rubber-soled boating-shoes, 
and unhampered by his coat, he lost no time in avoiding 
History’s arms, which flew around like a spider’s legs. 

He simply thrust the fingers of one hand into History’s 
long hair, and with the other hand struck out for shore. 
The boys had often poked fun at History’s Samsonian 
locks, and, when they had nothing else to do, they were 
always taking up a subscription to pay the price of a 
hair-cut for him; but after that day he was doubly 
convinced that the barber-chair was no place for him. 
He was too much scared to feel any pain at having his 
hair used for a handle, and did not know how uncom- 
fortable he really felt until he found himself on shore, 
with the other boys rolling him over and over, and wav- 


218 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


ing his arms up and down to get his lungs going again, 
according to the rules for rescuing the drowning. But 
when he once more realized who and where he was, it 
gave him most pain of all to lean against a tree and see 
B. J. swimming easily and swiftly out to his canoe, to 
see him right the canoe and empty it, to see him climb 
into it as if he were mounting a pony, and bring it ashore 
as safely as if it were a ferry-boat. 

Then Tug remarked : “ Down in the Louisiana swamps 
the foresters stand in their canoes and chop down 
trees.” 

And History gave him just one look— the sort of stare 
a fat man who has fallen off his bicycle as fast as he 
could get on it bestows on the athlete that rides on a 
single wheel. 

Camping life on the Island of the Dozen brought few 
adventures besides what the Dozen brought upon them- 
selves, or what their imagination afforded them. There 
were no Indians and no wild beasts for them to guard 
against at night when they gathered around the snap- 
ping camp-fire and tried to keep awake long enough to 
get sleepy; but every day meant twenty-four hours of 
bliss. 

And one day a party of girls came over with their 
mothers from Lakerim, and brought along not only their 
own bright selves, but great packages of fresh fruit and 
dainties, which tasted marvelously fine to palates that 
were growing just a bit weary of the limited range of 
Sawed-Off’s and Jumbo's cookery. It is doubtful which 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


219 


the doughty campers were gladder to see : their mothers 
and best girls, or the fried chicken and raspberry pre- 
serves. Each of the Dozen led his best girl and his 
mother, or her mother, whichever came along, all over 
the island to show them the wonders of the camp. 

B. J.’s chief friend was most interested in his canoe. 
She could swim almost as well as he, and dived from 
heights that had daunted many of the Dozen j and now, 
when she stepped into his canoe and paddled gracefully 
about in it, History's eyes stood out till they almost 
pushed his glasses off. 

Visitors, however, were not frequent at the camp. An 
occasional fisherman came, only to be told to move on, 
as they caught their own fish. But the Twelve had to 
depend chiefly on themselves for their entertainment, till 
one day a party of canoeists from Charleston appeared in 
the harbor, and the Dozen hastened to extend a hearty 
welcome. 

After Sawed-Off and Jumbo had worked off on the 
visitors some of their most dangerous experiments at 
cooking, in true Samaritan spirit they brought out the 
dainties left in their larder since the visit of the Lakerim 
girls. 

While they were all resting from the effects of their 
nuncheon, the Charlestonians were talking of the prow- 
ess of their best canoeist. After they had bragged for 
some time of the wonderful things he could do, Reddy 
and Heady lost their tempers at the same moment, and 
blurted out hotly : 


220 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“ I ’ll bet B. J. could do him up with one hand tied 
behind him ! ” 

“ Oh, go on ! ” B. J. objected modestly. “ I ’m a hay- 
seed at canoeing.” 

But the mischief was done now, and nothing could 
undo it but a test of skill. 

B. J., however, was too shy of his abilities to consent 
to a duel in canoeing, and in order to end the embarrass- 
ment one of the Charlestonians finally suggested that 
they have a tug of war. Since the Lakerims had no war 
canoe, and the Charlestonians would not permit them to 
use one of the rowboats, it was at length agreed that four 
of the Lakerims should make use of one of the Charles- 
tonian canoes, four of the visitors to use another. 

A long rope was tied completely around both canoes, 
just under the gunwale, that the strain might be evenly 
distributed. Then the four stoutest Charlestonians 
seated themselves in one canoe, and Tug, Punk, B. J., 
and Sawed-Off:, the strongest oarsmen in the Lakerims, 
took their place in the other. Each of the eight men 
had a single paddle, and the boats were placed about 
twenty feet apart. When all were ready, and keyed to 
the highest pitch, History, who was chosen to be referee, 
gave the word : u Go ! ” 

Almost before the word was out of his mouth the eight 
began to paddle most violently. They smote and splashed 
and grunted and shoved against the water in a fashion 
that looked from shore to be idiotic, since the two canoes 
seemed to be immovably anchored. Still they rolled and 
swayed and turned and wobbled ; but it was a full minute 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


221 


before the center knot in the rope could be seen to move 
in favor of either side. Then, gradually, centimeter by 
centimeter, it edged toward the Charleston territory. At 
the end of the three minutes that had been decided upon 
for the heat the Lakerim boat was disgracefully taken 
in tow. So much for the first heat. 

While the contestants were rerting, one of the Charles- 
tonians gave an exhibition of his skill in a sailing-canoe. 
His boat was a dream of beauty, with shining nickel fit- 
tings, and a glistening coat of varnish, and sails as white 
as Pretty’s duck trousers. The crew of the boat was a 
fellow of exquisite skill, who seated himself on a sliding- 
seat far out over the water, and managed his center-board, 
his tiller, and his sail as if he were six-handed. He had 
a stick toggled to the rudder-yoke at one end, and at the 
other to the collar of the deck-tiller. Thus he pulled or 
pushed as he pleased, so that it served the purpose of 
two rudder-lines. And the sheets he managed, when 
necessary, with his toe, by means of a cam-cleat provided 
with a long lever. It was the neatest and completest 
outfit B. J. had ever seen, and he determined to have a 
sailing-canoe even better the next year. 

After this exhibition was over the tug of war com- 
menced again, the fours exchanging boats. It was soon 
proved, however, that Charleston’s success had depended, 
not upon the boat, but upon the superior weight and 
strength of its four j and the Lakerim quartet, already 
weakened by the discouragement of the first failure, was 
pulled all over the place without difficulty. 

The Dozen smarted under this defeat, and crowded 


222 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


around B. J., demanding that for the honor of Lakerim 
he should race the crack paddler of Charleston. At 
length he consented. 

Before the two had embarked, however, one of the 
Charleston men spoke up and said: 

“ Why not make it a hurry-scurry race? It will be 
twice as interesting to watch.” 

“ What ’s a hurry-scurry race ? ” said Quiz. 

“Well,” answered the Charlestonian, “you run twenty- 
five yards, then swim twenty-five yards, then climb into 
your canoe and row twenty-five, then capsize, climb into 
it again, and paddle twenty-five yards more ; and that ? s 
the race.” 

B. J. thought that it promised very little glory for 
him ; but since it would doubtless offer great amusement 
to the crowd, he let his objections take a back seat, and 
agreed. Twenty-five yards on shore were paced off from 
the water’s edge, and the starter was placed there. 
About twenty-five yards out in the water a canoeist, who 
was to be the judge of the finish, was stationed. Twenty- 
five yards farther out a second canoeist took his stand 
and dropped anchor. 

The Charleston canoeist borrowed a bathing-suit ; and 
B. J., who lived in his, waited impatiently, pawing the 
ground and champing the bit at the starting-point. He 
was not a very good runner, and he was anxious to have 
the first part of the race over. When the Charleston 
man was ready, little time was lost in getting the men 
away. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


223 


The Charleston man was long-legged, and ran like a 
deer, while B. J. ran every which way. When he had 
finally reached the water’s edge he saw the Charlestonian 
already swimming; so he dashed blindly and fiercely in, 
like a retriever after a wounded duck. But his left foot 
slipped on a smooth stone, and his right foot caught on a 
jagged rock that cut him sore. Yet he flung himself 
into the water as soon as he was waist-deep, and struck 
out with great, long-handed strokes that lifted his shoul- 
ders clean into the daylight. His arms flashed like 
spruce oars, and he seemed to lay hold of the water and 
pull and push it back past him. His arms rose without 
a splash and entered neatly. He fairly hurled himself 
along. 

But though he went like a frightened water-fowl, with 
arms flying like wings, he was still swimming when his 
Charleston rival had clambered into his canoe— which the 
judge held ready— and was paddling vigorously away. 

When B. J. was in his canoe and after him, there was 
a striking contrast in the methods of the two oarsmen. 
Each used a double-bladed paddle, but the Charleston 
canoeist knelt on his right knee and paddled in the 
orthodox fashion. He had a good, long, sweeping stroke, 
with a sideways body roll on the right side of the boat ; 
but his stroke on the other side was hampered and short- 
ened by his left knee, and he could not turn far in that 
direction. His whole body was exposed like a sail to the 
wind, and as the wind was offshore it helped him along 
beautifully. It did not promise so well, however, for the 


224 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


return, when it would be a head wind. The boat was 
unsteady, too, and a large part of his thought and energy 
was devoted to keeping his balance. Still he rowed as 
his father had rowed before him, and he was a graceful 
sight to see. 

B. J. did not appeal to the artistic sense so strongly, 
but he rowed a stroke which would appeal more directly 
to the modern scientific mind— a distinctly American 
stroke. He sat on the bottom of the canoe, on a cushion. 
His legs were under the crosspiece, which his body almost 
touched. Under the thwart his knees were raised, so that 
his thighs pressed upward. His feet rested on a light 
foot-brace on each side of the canoe. Since he sat so 
low, resistance to the wind was almost ruled out of the 
question. No motion and no power were lost by un- 
steadiness of the canoe. 

B. J. could have extended his stroke backward on 
either side almost as far as the other canoeist could 
on the right side ; but he believed that the paddle, when 
carried too far back, lifted water and wasted the pad- 
dler’s energy. His stroke was an arm-and-shoulder 
stroke, nearly straight forward and backward, and the 
boat was steady as a church. He gave a great reach 
forward. The better part of his force was spent at the 
beginning of the stroke, and, as I say, the stroke was not 
carried far back. He feathered his paddle beautifully, 
and it was spoon-bladed. 

The Charlestonians openly guyed the Lakerim canoeist 
when they saw him plump himself down low in the 





V ~ ’ :rU, S% y • ' ; ~"~ 


H$il 


. 









. 














' 





■ 






















THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


227 


canoe ; but the way he covered water sobered them not a 
little, and at the end of the 25-yard paddle, in spite of 
the advantage of the wind, B. J. had almost overtaken 
the Charleston oarsman. He had capsized his canoe and 
landed in the water before the Charleston man was fairly 
started on the home stretch. 

B. J., in his excitement over the speed of the stroke he 
had adopted against the advice of many old skilled pad- 
dlers, made a fluke of righting his canoe and getting 
himself into it. It looked as if the Charleston man 
would have an easy victory, so wide was the distance 
between him and B. J. when B. J. was again at work. 

Once B. J. was well under way, however, he simply 
tore over the water, or, as it seemed, he floated over it 
in a light balloon that danced across the ripples. He 
stretched forward until he was the shape of a letter U 
lying on its side, and pulled with one hand and pushed 
with the other like a madman. He gained on the 
Charleston oarsman as if his rival had fallen asleep. 

If his rival had indeed fallen asleep, he did not look it, 
or he was having a sad nightmare of a dream. For he 
had turned to throw one contemptuous glance over his 
shoulder at the Lakerim oarsman, and he had seen what 
looked to him, not like a canoe, but a shark, or something 
that devoured space in a most inhuman way. Then he 
fell to paddling so violently that his canoe shook like a 
freighter in a gale. But though he wobbled as badly as 
B. J. did when he ran, there was no eluding the straight- 
forward, businesslike canoe that came flashing along 

13 


228 


THE LAKEKIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


after him. He had hardly time to realize that B. J. had 
caught up with him when B. J. was alongside j and it 
had just got into his head that a Lakerim bathing-suit 
was at his elbow when he realized that it was no longer 
there— it had gone on before. B. J. shot across the 
finishing-line like one of the defenders of the America’s 
Cup, and Charleston came plodding in afterward like one 
of the challengers from over sea. 

Once they were ashore again, the Charleston man was 
full of apologies to his friends, and of explanations to 
the Lakerimmers that he had not let himself out because 
he had not expected to find so good a canoeist with so 
curious a manner of rowing. 

The Lakerim men merely patted B. J. on the back a 
little harder, and smiled in a superior manner. 

This angered the Charleston expert, and he declared in 
a loud voice that in a straightaway race he would soon 
show them whether or not he knew what he was talking 
about— Jumbo having suggested in an aside to Sawed- 
Off that the stranger was talking through his hat. Evi- 
dently the hat he was said to talk through was not a 
thinking-cap. 

B. J. said he would not mind, just for the fun of the 
thing, trying a straightaway race with the visitor. A 
half-mile was agreed on, since both of the men were rather 
tired. It was simply the story of the hurry-scurry race in 
a revised edition. 

The Charleston man again had the advantage of the 
wind in the beginning of the course. He threw all his 
energy now into the task of teaching the Lakerim man 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


229 


to know his superiors when he saw them • but B. J. over- 
came his rival even when he had the aid of the wind, 
which made a sail-boat out of him, and he left the 
Charleston man hopelessly in the rear in the finish of 
the course. 

He was sorry now that the breeze was against his 
rival, because, being a thorough sportsman, he did not 
enjoy an easy victory. He even slowed down and let 
the other man catch up. 

He was too well-mannered to do this in a mocking 
way, as if conscious of his superiority ; but he pretended 
to be winded, or to let his paddle slip and to regain it as 
it tried to drift away. But the ease with which he got 
past the Charlestonian again as soon as the fellow came 
up convinced him finally that his rival was “ out- 
classed, v as he modestly worded it. Then, just for the 
glory of Lakerim and the delight of the Dozen, he put 
on full steam, and sped along the home stretch with a 
speed that would rival the flight of an albatross. 

The Lakerimmers howled with pride as their hero 
beached his boat ; and even the Charlestonians were com- 
pelled to grip him by the hand and tell him that he 
ought to come to Charleston Academy— the highest com- 
pliment they knew how to pay. 

But B. J. said with pride : “ The Lakerim High School ; s 
good enough for me.” 

Not many days after the Charlestonians disappeared into 
the distance, the Twelve gathered around the camp-fire like 
a war council of Indians, and built air-castles in the future. 


230 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


“Speaking of air-castles,” said B. J., “what is the 
matter with the real thing— the club-house that is going 
up at home?” 

And then they all felt homesick to see how their 
future castle was prospering, and perhaps down in their 
hearts they were a little homesick for their mothers and 
their other best girls. 

So they decided that they had camped long enough. 
So the next day they folded their tents like the Arabs, 
and noisily moved away. 

So that evening found them at home. 

So they saw the club-house, and saw that the car- 
penters were now busy putting flesh on the dry bones 
they had last seen when they went out a-camping. 


XIV 


:c ~T~TI ! Hi, yi ! Hi, yi, yi ! Booma-lacka, bow-wow ! 

J L Hullabaloo! Yab, wab! Chick-a-go-runk ! go- 

runk! Siss boom 7 rah! Hey-ip ! hey-ip! Siccum ! 
? Rah-zoo ! Wah-hoo ! Bang ! Ki-yi, mockali-on ! 
Buzz-saw ! Boom 'rah ! Hobble-gobble, razzle-dazzle ! 
Breke-kek-ex, ko-ax, ko-ax ! Skookum, skookum ! ” 

This marvelous language was not the small talk of the 
debating society of an insane asylum, nor was it a kennel 
of mad dogs broken loose. It was only the joint efforts 
of twelve solemn young gentlemen to decide upon a club 
yell. Each man had his own howl, and insisted on sing- 
ing out with it while all the rest were rehearsing their 
own. It is reported that when this grand combination 
broke loose, all the small boys in town thought a circus 
was coming along with its calliope (which, of course, they 
pronounced “ callie-ope ”), while the two small policemen 
that pretended to protect the town of Lakerim are re- 
ported to have thought that a gang of outlaws was attack- 
ing the place, and to have crawled into a deep ditch, and 
pulled the ditch in after them. 

231 


232 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


After every one had yelled himself hoarse, each of the 
Twelve began yelling again to qniet the others, and the 
noise was almost greater than before. At length, how- 
ever, they quieted down enough to listen to the various 
candidates for the yell. History proposed a long Latin 
quotation, and insisted on at least having some big words 
in the yell. He and Bobbles joined forces, and compro- 
mised on the following gem : 

“ Doodle-um ! Diddle-um ! Dandle-um ! The duo- 
decimal Dozen ! ” 

Punk, however, said that this yell was beneath the 
dignity of such great men, and proposed one which he 
persuaded them to try over. It could hardly be called 
short, but it was certainly complete, and consisted not 
only in spelling out the full name of the club, but sur- 
rounding this with most of the well-known yells of all the 
colleges. It went something like this : 

“ Breke-kek-ex, ko-ax, ko-ax ! Siss boom ’rah ! Hulla- 
baloo, ha ! L-a-k-e-r-i-m A-t-h-l-e-t-i-c C-l-u-b ! ’Rah, ’rah, 
’rah ! ’Rah, ’rah, ’rah ! ’Rah, ’rah, ’rah ! ” 

The Dozen started vigorously to yell this out, and kept 
together fairly well until they came to the spelling of the 
long name, but there they began to fall by the wayside ; 
they dropped to the ground, exhausted, one by one, so 
fast that by the time they reached the last u ’Rah ! ” only 
one man survived, and that was the long-winded Puuk, 
and even he gasped it out like a sick rooster. 

After this they all sat still on the ground where they 
had fallen, and thought hard for some time, and debated 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


233 


in whispers. The result of this debate was the final se- 
lection of a brisk yell that left some breath in the body 
of the yellers, though it threatened to break all the win- 
dows for miles around. The word “ Lakerim ” was given 
three times, with a long a and a short i, and the yell went 
out in a burst of glory, all the voices keeping together 
until half-way through the last long “ Hoo ! ” when they 
divided and took different vowels. This gave the yell 
a blood-curdling sound that reminded B. J. of the tribes 
of Indians he had never seen. And this was the yell : 


“ Lay-krim ! 


Lay-krim ! 


Lay-krim ! 


Hoo-<! 


rrsih ! 
ri! 
ro ! 
ray! 
row ! 
vroo ! ” 


Once the yell was settled upon, and learned and prac- 
tised until they snapped it off as if it were a whip, they 
were troubled with the problem of club colors. This 
worried them seriously ; and while they did not make so 
much noise in their deliberations as they had in discuss- 
ing a yell, the colors they finally selected were even louder 
than the loudest yell they could rip out of their lungs. 
They were very secret about the choice of their colors, 
and no one of the townspeople knew what they were to 
be, till, on the occasion of a large picnic, the Twelve blos- 
somed out in neck-scarfs made out of two colors by a 


234 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


tailor who had been sworn to secrecy. Well might he 
have kept them secret, for they were the most fearful and 
wonderful nooses that ever encircled human necks. 

The two colors were a pale, sickly green and a violent 
purple, that glared at each other like a frightened lamb 
and a hungry wolf. There is no way of describing just 
the particular shades that were joined in this hideous 
partnership. It must be enough to say that those colors 
almost broke up the picnic, and made such a sensation 
that the pride of the Dozen had a Humpty-Dumpty fall, 
and with one accord they decided to wear their hand- 
kerchiefs about their necks to hide the scarfs they had 
bought at such expense. 

The girl that Pretty honored with the greater part of 
his attentions took him aside and told him he deserved 
his misery for not going to her or to some one with taste 
to select the club colors. Then the Dozen voted unani- 
mously to make a new selection, and to leave the choice 
to the girls that called themselves the Lakerim Annex. 

Then there was more trouble, for the feminine com- 
mittee picked out such a dainty combination of wild-rose 
pink and baby-blue as would have disgraced an athletic 
club even more than the purple-green horror the boys 
selected. The Annex and the club had a conference then, 
and after much debating, and more combinations than 
were ever seen in a rainbow, they chose the not very 
original combination of gold and blue, which, however, 
was substantial enough and gorgeous enough for ail pur- 
poses. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


235 


And History even wrote a very bad poem all about 
“pure gold” and “true blue” though Jumbo was mean 
enough to say that he could not understand just how 
History made “ Lakerim Athletic ” rime with “ 18-karat,” 
or “apple-blossom” with “the Dozen But History 
scornfully said that Jumbo had no soul for poetry. 


XV 


OW this girl friend of Pretty’s, who had saved the club 



i.1 from their green-and-purple horror, was the best 
tennis-player among the girls of Lakerim, as Pretty was 
the best among the boys ; and there was no “ mixed team ” 
in town that could equal them when they played together. 
Accordingly, when this girl— her name was Enid— was 
invited to a house-party at a near-by summer resort, 
where there was a country club with a fine lot of tennis- 
courts, she soon secured an invitation for Pretty. And 
he was doubly glad to go, since he knew that on these 
superfine tennis-courts he would meet some of the super- 
fine tennis-players of the Tri-State Interscholastic League, 
which felt itself so superfine that it would not admit the 
Lakerim Athletic Club to membership. 

When the Dozen went to the station to see Pretty off, 
B. J. took him to one side, and said with bated breath 
(all B. J.’s heroes always spoke with bated breath, though 
neither had he nor have I the slightest idea what a bated 
breath is) : 

“Now is the chance of a lifetime, Poorty, to bring 
home a beltful of scalps.” 


236 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


237 


Then History buttonholed him, and said in an impor- 
tant voice : 

“ Lawn-tennis, Pretty, is one of the most venerable and 
dignified games we have in these benighted days, and the 
Athletic Club will receive you with unrestrained admira- 
tion if you return victorious.” 

Every one of the eleven had some good word to say, 
and when the train pulled out, the last thing Pretty saw 
was the little band of faithfuls waving gold-and-blue flags 
at him ; and even when the train swept around a curve 
that hid them from sight, he heard faintly on the air the 
magic words : 

/rah ! 
ri! 


“ Lay-krim ! Lay-krim ! 


Lay-krim! Hoo-< 


ro ! 
ray! 
row ! 


kroo ! ” 


And this made him more than ever determined to show 
those Interscholastics what they were missing in keeping 
Lakerim out of the League. 

The Interscholastic League had finished its tennis 
tournament long before ; but while the championship had 
been won by a man named Hall from the Kingston Acad- 
emy, three other men had given him a hard fight— Gates 
of the Troy Latin School, Eaton of Charleston, and 
Sprague of Greenville. 

When Pretty arrived at the country club he found Enid 


238 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


busily engaged in defeating the best tennis-players among 
the girls and women there. She hardly took time to skip 
across the court, and shake hands with him, and intro- 
duce him to two or three people, before she hurried back 
to the game. 

One of the few whom Pretty met was the great and 
only Hall himself. He gave Pretty one languid glance, 
and asked with a lofty manner : 

“ Do you play the game ? ” 

“ A little,” said Pretty, modestly ; and though he knew 
perfectly well who the uppish Hall was, he could not help 
adding: “Do you?” 

“ Ahem ! ahem ! ” said Hall, in some confusion. “ Well, 
rather ! I am the champion of the Tri-State League ! ” 

“ Oh,” said Pretty, “ I believe I have heard something 
about that. I ’d like to play you a set or two.” 

This presumption almost took the mighty Hall’s breath 
away, but he had enough left to sniff : 

“ What handicap would you want ? ” 

Then it was Pretty’s turn to lose his breath at the sub- 
lime conceit of the man, and he exclaimed : 

“ Handicap ? Why, I want an even game, of course.” 

“ Oho ! ” laughed Hall. “ Well, I don’t mind — some day 
when I have no other engagement.” And he strode ma- 
jestically away. 

His behavior nettled Pretty so much that he vowed 
never to condescend to ask Hall to condescend to play 
him. He soon made up some matches, however, with 
the smaller fry, whom he defeated so easily that the 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


239 


three men who had contested with Hall in the Interscho- 
lastic finals began to look upon him as an interesting 
possibility. 

It would be hard to say whether tennis was made for 
Pretty, or Pretty for tennis, but the two certainly got 
along beautifully together. In spite of the name the boys 
had given him, his good looks and gracefulness did not 
make a milksop of him ; and while his muscles were not 
so big and gnarly as those of others of the Dozen, yet they 
were by no means lacking in strength. He was rather 
like the lithe Indians, whose development is so equal and 
whose strength is so agile that they do not show through 
the skin, as do those of many a weaker man, who, for all 
his biceps like a base-ball, may be muscle-bound. 

Sawed-Off had sniffed scornfully that lawn-tennis was 
a game fit for nobody but girls and pretty boys. The only 
answer Pretty made was to persuade him to go out on the 
court and have a little practice. Pretty played easily 
with the lumbering Sawed-Off, and placed the ball so 
gently always in the corner of the court hardest for Sawed- 
Off to reach that he kept the giant lunging this way and 
darting that, falling all over himself and the net so vio- 
lently that it was not long before he was bathed in per- 
spiration, panting for breath, his head and his wind both 
lost. Then Sawed-Off dropped the racket he had handled 
so awkwardly, and muttered : 

“ Foot-ball is child’s play compared to tennis ! ” 

The best thing about Pretty’s game of tennis was not 
so much that he was great in any one style as that he was 


240 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


good in all. He rarely made those marvelous plays that 
take the breath away from the crowd and compel even 
the opponents to applaud; for those marvelous plays 
are usually more than half good luck, and less than half 
skill. Pretty won his applause from the spectators by 
his unfailing coolness, his jaunty freshness after the most 
wearing play, and by the wonderful persistence that 
proved, in the long run, better than any streak of good 
luck, and won the more games. Pretty played with style, 
and style in all sports, as in all machinery, accompanies 
easiest and most scientific action. He was graceful as a 
panther, and withal as alert and active, while the game 
never grew so fierce that it left him dripping with sweat 
and generally shabby ; and yet no effort was too violent 
for him to make, when any good seemed likely to be 
gained. The ball never flew so far away, or so swiftly, 
that he did not at least make a try for it. 

In this fact that he never let a chance go by, and in 
his coolness, he showed the making of an ideal tennis- 
player ; and it was his main ambition to perfect himself, 
so that some day, when he was older, he might be the 
champion of his country, and meet some of those English 
and Irish experts that come over here so proudly. He 
wanted to send them home a little sadder and a little 
wiser. 

What looked like laziness in Pretty was really cautious- 
ness. He often lost the first game or two he played 
with a new man ; but he did not waste it : he spent it 
getting acquainted with his rival ; and after his rival had 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


241 


served one game, and been the striker-out in the next, 
Pretty usually knew just what sort of player the other 
man was. Pretty played a scientific game, with a strong 
wrist, and a grip that never let the racket twist in the 
hand. While he was not a big-muscled fellow, he wielded 
his racket with the fine, long swing before the ball is 
struck that carries it faster and truer than any short 
stroke, however strong. Pretty had a base of operations, 
like a general, and tried always to play from that, and 
work back toward it after every stroke. But best of all, 
as I have said, were his steadiness and his patience and 
good humor, for he never lost his temper or his head. 

What, never? 

Well, hardly ever. 

Pretty had not been at the country club many days 
before Enid chose him as her partner for a tournament 
of mixed doubles. The two understood each other per- 
fectly, and Enid took her full share of the game. She 
never failed to run hard after a ball ; she played well at 
the net, and was very tricksy at placing and returning ; 
so Pretty never felt it necessary to poach on her preserves, 
or to do all the running. 

The man on the other side of the net was Gates, one 
of the three good men whom the champion Hall had 
beaten in the Interscholastic tournament; and when 
Pretty and Enid won handsomely with a good margin, 
Gates felt called upon to challenge Pretty to play. Of 
course Pretty accepted greedily. 

It took Pretty about two games to decide that Gates 


242 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


could not do much but lob. This style of knocking the 
ball sky-high never struck Pretty as a very good thing to 
make a whole game out of, and it was a style he rarely 
used. It puzzled him at first, and he generally misjudged 
the bound of the lob, or, if he struck it before it bounded, 
usually returned it wild. But he soon adapted himself to 
Gates’ game, and while he could not beat him in his own 
manner, he returned Gates’ sky-scrapers with such smashes 
and cuts that the Troy champion was soon beaten badly. 

Then Eaton, another one of the three, who had watched 
the game, smiled at the childish lobbing of Gates, and 
thought he would teach this newcomer a lesson; so he 
challenged him. And of course Pretty accepted greedily. 

Eaton was another one-style man ; most tennis-players 
are. He relied mainly on the old-fashioned twist; he 
came as near the stroke that is named after the great 
English player Lawford, as he could. This stroke, as you 
know, is curious, because it takes such a violent effort to 
lawford the ball, and the bounce that results is such a 
sickly twist. Eaton would slash the ball with a stiffened 
wrist, an elbow swing, and a quick, hard jump into the 
air at the same time, to put the “ English” on. This 
stroke is one of the most violent forms of amusement 
known to civilized races. But Pretty soon learned to 
calculate just how the ball would bound by watching the 
way it was delivered. So he calmly placed himself on the 
proper side, and usually before Eaton could untangle 
himself from the bow-knot into which he had tied himself, 
Pretty had returned the ball with a swift stroke, or a twist 



PRETTY WINS THE GAME OE TENNIS AGAINST HALL. 



THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


245 


that landed in a part of the court where Eaton could not 
reach it. 

Then the third man, Sprague, tried to administer pun- 
ishment on this stranger who had beaten two of the best 
Interscholastics. Of course Pretty accepted his challenge 
greedily. 

Sprague was almost as much of a specialist as the other 
two, and he depended almost altogether on a delicate 
drop-stroke and a strong overhead drive. With these he 
played a fairly good game; but Pretty soon knew both 
these things, and paid them back with interest, and 
Sprague also joined the disgruntled two. 

Now it happened that the great man Hall had been 
away from the club while Pretty was polishing off the 
three men Hall had won his championship from. Pretty 
had been so modest and complimentary in the games he 
had played that the three victims of his science began to 
wish very hard that he might take a little of the conceit 
—it would have been impossible to take it all-out of 
Champion Hall. When Hall returned, therefore, they 
speedily gave him glowing accounts of the wonderful new 
player, and they insinuated that he would prove too much 
for Hall, as he had for them. But Hall was too self- 
satisfied to be frightened, and he determined to show 
Pretty “a thing or two.” 

The day after he got back, he sauntered up to Pretty, 
and said in a patronizing way : 

“ The fellows have been telling me that you put up a 
pretty stiff game of tennis.” 

14 


246 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


u Is that so ? ” was all Pretty said. He was still smart- 
ing under the indignation he felt at Hall's treatment of 
him at their first meeting, and he went on with what he 
was saying to Enid. 

But Hall persisted : u What would you say to playing 
me ? ” and he said it with the same magnificent manner 
a king might use in saying to a beggar : u How would 
you like to be made a duke ? ” 

u I should n't mind,” said Pretty, calmly. 

“ Best three sets out of five ? ” 

“ That suits me.” 

“ Be here at ten o'clock to-morrow morning,” was Hall's 
royal command. 

Pretty wanted to punch his head on general principles, 
but decided it would be better to beat him at tennis. 

He knew, however, that Hall was an unusually strong 
player, and he felt very anxious for the result ; so he said 
nothing to any one of the coming game. But Hall was 
so eager to prove his greatness publicly that he went 
around inviting every one at the club to be on hand at 
the finish of the stranger ; and the next morning found 
a large crowd, beautiful with summer colors, gathered 
round the court. 

Hall insisted on having an umpire, and a linesman at 
each base-line, though Pretty had expected only an in- 
formal game. They tossed up a penny, and Hall won 
first toss, and served. Pretty, therefore, chose the side 
of the court where the sun was least bothersome. 

“ Are you ready ¥ ” said the umpire. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


247 


Both players nodded. 

u Play ! 99 said the umpire. And almost before the word 
was out of his mouth Hall sent a vicious drive across the 
net. Hall knew the court so well that the first service 
was true, while Pretty misjudged the ball, and flunked 
on the return. 

u Fifteen, love ! ” said the umpire. 

The next service upon the left court was equally true, 
and found Pretty again equally unable to get it back. 

“ Thirty, love ! ” said the umpire ; and a slight grin 
appeared on Hall’s face as he went back to the base-line 
of the right court, and repeated the success of the first. 

u Forty, love ! ” said the umpire ; and his next word was 
11 Game ! 99 

As Hall batted the balls across the net for Pretty to 
serve, his slight grin had grown wider, and he waited 
easily for the opening shot from Pretty. Pretty’s first 
serve was a pet of his, though he did not allow it to 
monopolize all his favor. It was a vicious forehand drive. 
When it went where it was sent, it just dipped the ex- 
treme corner of the service-court, and while it was a hard 
stroke to deliver, it was a harder one to return. But 
when the first ball went straight into the net, Pretty did 
not, as most players do, send over an easy one after his 
first fault; but tried the same stroke again. This also 
went into the net, though not so deeply as the first 
one. 

“ Love, fifteen ! ” said the umpire. 

On the next service Pretty made the first fault on a 


248 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


ball that went far too high above the net. His second 
went still too high, but not so high. 

“ Love, thirty ! " said the umpire. 

Still Pretty persisted, and lost the whole game on faults. 
Two love games in succession were enough to upset the 
best of Pretty's friends, and to make them believe either 
that he was hopelessly inferior to Hall, or— which was 
quite as bad— that he was having an off day. But neither 
they nor the gloating Hall knew that Pretty was only 
studying Hall when Hall served, and only doing a little 
scientific range-finding when he himself served. And 
now Hall was serving again. 

His first service was accurate, but this time Pretty 
returned it— into the net. And Hall's service from the 
left court Pretty also found and returned, with a short 
pick-up or half -volley that took Hall so by surprise that 
he tried to return it, though it would have gone outside 
of bounds if left alone. 

“ Fifteen-all ! " said the umpire j and Enid thought this 
a much pleasanter-sounding score than those that had so 
much “love" in them. 

His other serve Pretty returned again, this time ac- 
curately 5 but Hall had made a mistake in rushing after a 
ball that went wild before, so he made no effort to reach 
this one, and realized that the score was now 15 to 30 , 
and he must wake up a little ; so he did, and won the 
game. 

The fourth game Pretty began with another fault, but 
the second effort was successful, though Hall returned it 
with ease. Pretty put more force into the following ser- 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


249 


vice, and this Hall returned with difficulty • and Pretty 
killed his return without difficulty. Pretty managed in 
this game to work the score up to u deuce,” but Hall won 
both the “ advantages” and the game. 

The fifth game Pretty managed to make also a long, 
deuce game, in spite of the fact that the great and glori- 
ous Hall was serving j but at a critical moment he mis- 
judged a volley, and heard the sickening smack of the 
wood when the ball struck the edge of his racket, and 
he knew that the game was lost. It looked at the time as 
if it would be a love set, but Pretty shut his teeth a 
little harder, and won the sixth game on his own serve. 
The next, however, though hard fought, went to Hall, and 
the set was his, at a score of 6 to 1. 

“ Had enough ? ” said Hall, as they passed each other 
to change courts. 

“ No, not yet,” said Pretty, and he could not help bor- 
rowing an idea from John Paul Jones; he added: “I 've 
just begun to play.” 

Now Pretty had the sun in his eyes, and a new side of 
the net to work from ; but he had played what might be 
called a constructive game, and though he found himself 
with the score against him, he also found himself pretty 
well acquainted with Hall's methods. Hall, however, was 
so convinced that he had an easy victory that he had paid 
little heed to Pretty's improvement, and had grown care- 
less and ragged. He scored many double faults, and 
netted many a let, and planted many an easy return out- 
side the side-lines or beyond the back-lines. 

Pretty was still, however, playing so cautiously, and 


250 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


studying the new tricks that Hall felt called upon to let 
him see, that he could not quite win the set, though he 
brought it to the point of “ games-all ” and lost by the 
very respectable score of 7 to 5. 

Now Hall decided that one more set was all that was 
necessary to put a stop to the gossip that had been going 
around to the effect that this newcomer from the small 
town of Lakerim understood the game of tennis. He 
went in to win, and played his best. But Pretty also 
went in to win and show that he also knew a thing or 
two. He won the first three games of the set with some 
difficulty, and for the fourth administered him a love 
game. This put Hall on his mettle, indeed, and brought 
from him some of those brilliant displays that had won 
him the championship in the Interscholastic League ; but 
though Hall took the next three games, Pretty did not 
lose heart at the outbursts of applause— that even Enid 
was forced to join— in praise of Hall’s fierce volleys and 
his long, running returns. 

Nor did Pretty grow frightened when Hall charged 
down on the net like a wild bull, but he faced him calmly 
as a toreador, and returned volley for volley. There 
ensued one of those plays that even a stranger to lawn- 
tennis can enjoy watching— and there are not many plays 
that a stranger to lawn-tennis can make head or tail of. 
This little single combat was a fierce one. Hall tried vol- 
leying returns till he found that he could not get the 
ball past Pretty that way. Then he tried lobbing the 
ball, and got lobs back. He tried high lobs, and low 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


251 


lobs, and lobs with a twisting cut. But at every point 
Pretty met him, till a misstep brought him to the ground 
with a wrenched ankle, and Hall placed the ball with a 
gentle tap far out of his reach, though he ran after it on 
hands and knees. 

Pretty’s ankle was not sprained seriously, yet it was 
such a wrench as made every step a twinge. If people some- 
times thought him a bit effeminate, he now showed a 
woman’s ability to smile through pain, and none of the 
spectators knew he suffered ; and though he lost in this 
one duel, he won the game, and the next two after it ; 
which gave him the set by the comfortable score of 6 to 3. 

The next set found Hall still more determined to wipe 
Pretty off the face of the earth; but his determination 
was of the heating and disconcerting kind, while Pretty’s 
determination to win made him all the more cool and all 
the more cautious. Hall began now to bring out of his 
box of tricks everything he knew about tennis. He 
dropped his slashing overhead serve for a low forehand 
twist ; but Pretty knew that this would always bound to 
the left side, and stood ready. Then Hall tried the low 
backhand stroke; but Pretty, watching his cut, stood 
waiting for a bounce to the right, and returned it with- 
out difficulty. And then the disgusted Hall began to use 
the backward twist, but quit it soon, when he saw that 
Pretty could foretell that it would always bounce straight 
back toward the net. 

Pretty had been perfected in this style of returning by 
his experience in the games with Eaton ; and his contest 


252 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


with Sprague had perfected him in the dainty drop-stroke, 
which landed the ball just over the net, and to which 
Hall turned in desperation. Finding himself beaten at 
all these points, and tired out, besides, with a combination 
of rash rushes and explosive temper, Hall tried to get a 
little rest and breath by devoting most of his time to lob- 
bing. But he found that he was losing more than he 
gained, for Pretty’s game with Sprague had perfected 
him in the lob, which he returned in all sorts of unex- 
pected ways and places. In fact, if the three men had 
seriously gone about training Pretty to take down their 
high and mighty conqueror Hall, they could not have 
done better 5 for the experience with three players, each 
very good in his own little specialty, had broadened 
Pretty into the all-round education that is needed by a 
would-be champion. 

And now, when the fourth set went Pretty’s way, it 
was the great and only Hall himself that proposed an 
adjournment until the afternoon, seeing that the score in 
sets was a tie. 

But Pretty’s ankle was protesting so violently against 
this hard usage that he knew that his only hope was in 
playing the contest to a finish immediately. By after- 
noon it would probably be so swollen that he would not 
be able to walk on it, and he felt that any excuse he 
would make for postponing the finish of the game indefi- 
nitely would be taken as a sign of cowardice by Mr. Hall. 
So he relentlessly insisted that he would rather play it out 
at once, and Hall was too proud to cry u Quits ! ” again. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


253 


Pretty felt now that his only hope was in setting Hall 
such a pace that the end would come soon, for every step 
sent a dash of pain through his whole body; but he 
realized that the only truly strong game is a careful 
game, and he played more with his mind than ever. He 
was forced to let several chances pass that he might 
have taken advantage of by a violent effort, but he feared 
another tumble, and found his revenge in placing his 
returns so neatly that they always taxed Hall to the 
utmost. 

He sent him flying to the back-line, and brought him 
dashing back to the net; he drove down the side-lines, 
and so varied his straight volleys and his drop-strokes, 
and so masked his twists, that Hall's tongue was almost 
hanging out from exhaustion. 

And now it was Pretty's turn to provoke the applause 
of the spectators, and Enid wore her gloves to tatters 
pounding her little hands together in her ecstasy over his 
successes ; for now he was playing with Hall as a cat with 
a mouse, meeting Hall's frantic efforts with his own cool- 
ness, and meeting Hall's brute force with teasing devices 
planned on the spur of the moment. But luck was on 
Hall's side, though science was on Pretty's, and they were 
tied at the end of the eighth game. 

“ Four- And,'' however, found Pretty almost more des- 
perate than the champion, for he felt that his ankle would 
never last out a deuce set. His forehead was clammy 
with pain, but only a slight knitting of his brows, and 
the tight pressure of his pale lips, would have shown any 


254 : 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


beholder that he was having a harder battle even than the 
champion who saw his laurels being wrested from him. 

Then followed a long and bitter contest, and the score 
kept bobbing back to “ games-all ” till Pretty grew fairly 
dizzy. He found himself finally with the advantage game 
in his favor, and Hall to serve. And now he felt that 
he had only one more game in him before the last jot of 
his strength was drained out. 

Halls first service was a drive which Pretty took on a 
splendid pick-up that just clipped the back-line of Hall’s 
court, and sent up a beautiful little puff of lime-smoke 
that looked far from beautiful to Hall. Again Hall deliv- 
ered a drive, and again Pretty returned it with a half- 
volley, and again it just nipped the line. But this time 
Hall claimed that it was “out,” and when the umpire 
decided against him he protested angrily. The umpire 
stuck to his decision in spite of Halls fuming, however, 
until Pretty came forward to the net and requested the 
umpire to change his decision in Hall’s favor. At Lake- 
rim he had learned the spirit of the true sportsman. 

The score was now “ fifteen-all,” and this time Hall sent 
over a drop-stroke that brought Pretty forward to the 
net with a run in which every step was agony. But he 
reached the ball in time, and returned it with a low lob 
which Hall decided to return with a mad killing stroke. 
But the smashing blow he gave it sent it into the net, and 
in his wrath he whirled his racket in after it. That was 
his method of expressing disappointment. But when 
Pretty misjudged the next service, and returned the ball 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


255 


into the lap of Enid, instead of imitating Hall’s action, he 
only dried the wet palm of his hand on his handkerchief, 
and gripped his racket tighter. This was his method of 
expressing disappointment. 

u Thirty-all,” said the umpire. 

Hall repeated the successful twist he had used before ; 
but Pretty rarely made the same mistake twice, and lifted 
his return gently over the net. Here Hall found it, how- 
ever, since he had started to run forward immediately 
after his service. He sent it swishing right at Pretty’s 
face ; but there Pretty met it with a loose racket, and it 
went back to Hall’s left side. Hall scooped it in with a 
clever backhanded stroke, and Pretty, suffering with a 
constant throbbing pain, struck blindly at it, and the ball 
hit him a stinging blow in the mouth. This point was 
doubly Hall’s then, and the umpire had nothing to say 
but: 

“ Forty-thirty!” 

Pretty tied the score on the next service. And now Hall 
made a fierce effort to use the Lawford stroke, which it is 
said no one but its inventor ever succeeded in perfecting, 
and by a mad contortion he sent over one perfect exam- 
ple of it. But Pretty foresaw what was coming, and for 
once luck was on his side in his effort to return it. 

“ ’Vantage out ! ” sang the umpire. 

Hall tried the Lawford again on his next service, but 
flunked, and the umpire cried : 

u Fault one ! ” 

Upon this next service the whole contest hung, and 


256 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


Hall returned to his first love, a fierce overhead drive ; but 
Pretty fell back before it far enough to return it on a 
long level volley that barely skimmed the net. This Hall 
was forced to take with an underhand stroke that made a 
lob of his return, and Pretty, who had run forward to take 
the net, saw, to his chagrin, the ball going far over his 
head and well back of him. He turned and dashed 
desperately after it ; but it struck the ground and bounded 
high again before he could get far enough to return it 
with a forward drive. His only hope lay in taking the 
desperate chance of a backward lob; so, as he ran, he 
dipped his racket under it, and it returned again skyward 
just as Pretty tumbled in a heap upon the ground. 

Hall watched it as it soared, and smiled as it came 
easily within his reach. He decided to let it bound, and 
noting with one quick glance that his rival was far to the 
rear, decided to give it a gentle pat that should lift it just 
clear of the net ; but the smile died out as the perverse 
little ball struck the canvas band and fell rippling down 
the net into the court. 

Then the umpire sang out that the game and the set 
and the contest belonged to the man from Lakerim, and 
everybody broke out into gay applause for a well-earned 
victory. 

But the applause stopped short, for the victor did not 
rise and acknowledge it; he lay upon the ground in a 
still, white heap ; and when Enid and others ran to him 
they found that he had fainted away. 


XVI 

1 X'XTELL, I made a foozle at the tenth, and heeled the 
▼ ▼ hall, and landed in a banker j but I took a good 
stance, and got a strong grip on my mashie, and—” 

It was History that spoke, and in a stranger language 
than ever. Quiz had won his name by earning it, and he 
alone of all the dumb-struck Dozen had strength enough 
to break in with a question. He grasped the nearest 
strange word, and queried : 

“ Say, History, what ’s a mashie f ” 

“Why,” said History, superiorly, “a mashie is a 
straight-faced niblick.” 

Ten of the boys had only breath enough to gasp : 

“ Whew ! ” 

But Quiz persisted : 

“ And what under the sun is a niblick ? ” 

And History answered scornfully : 

“Why, I thought everybody knew that a niblick is a 
narrow-headed iron to be used when you get in a whin.” 

And then no one dared ask what a “ whin ” might be, 
and all History saw was a little cloud of dust raised by 
257 


258 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


twenty-two heels, and all he heard was a feeble chorus of 
“ Good day ! ” 

The rest of the Dozen had fled for their lives. 

History was bad enough when he stuck to the English 
dictionary, but now he had gone mad— or, to be Scotch, 
he had gone “ daffy”— over golf. 

Golf appealed to History particularly for three reasons : 
In the first place, it had so many new, hard words that 
none of the other boys in Lakerim could understand. In 
the second, it required no running or jumping. 

“ And, besides, it is a very venerable game,” said History. 
“ They had it in Scotland before they had firearms.” 

“Yes,” said Jumbo; “if they had had firearms first, 
the man that invented golf would never have lived to 
know what struck him.” 

But History told with gusto the story of the occasion, 
almost three centuries ago, when the Scot that was after- 
ward James II of England had chosen a shoemaker for 
his partner, and had beaten the English noblemen that 
claimed to know the game. 

At first the boys called History a snob, and made all 
manner of second-rate jokes about his mania ; but he re- 
minded them of how they had imported hockey ; and used 
such a fearful and wonderful vocabulary in trying to 
explain to them the charms of the game that they finally 
thought it best to leave him to himself. 

And so he practised at the game like the serious-minded 
old gentleman he was. He went about swiping at all the 
pebbles with a shinny-club he had borrowed of Jumbo, 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


259 


and he bought him a volume or two on the science of the 
game— he called them “ text-books ” ! He got him a couple 
of well-made clubs from an old Highlander who had 
settled in Lakerim j and went at golf with as much serious- 
ness as if there were a diploma to win. 

He carried his book with him; and he would read a 
passage, and then stick the book into his pocket, and try 
to put into practice what he had read. At first he missed 
the golf -ball with surprising regularity, and either cut the 
turf or raised large welts on the atmosphere. Finally he 
u found the ball,” as they say in base-ball, but now it 
always went in some direction far from the one he aimed at. 

Then, one day, his spectacles dropped off, and he caught 
them a clip with his club, that sent them splintering into 
the middle of week after next ; and that day some one had 
to lead him home. 

But he would not be discouraged, and at length his 
natural awkwardness was worn away until he was able to 
strike the ball squarely and fairly. Yet now, hard as his 
weak arms smote it, it would roll only a few feet along. 
But in time he learned that the secret of the golf-stroke 
is not so much in the force of the blow as in the length 
of the swing before and after the club strikes the ball. 
The knack of “ following the stroke through,” as good 
golfers phrase it, is half the game. 

So at length History was enabled to conquer the temp- 
tation to bat the ball, and he learned rather to sweep it 
away, carrying the club on after it in line with the flight 
of the ball. 


260 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


History had this advantage over more athletic fellows 
in learning golf : that he was willing to begin right, and 
improve slowly but steadily along the correct way, instead 
of beginning with quick and only fairly good results, ac- 
complished in bad form and never improved. 

He began with a very short swing, but slowly increased 
the length of his stroke until he brought the club fairly 
well back over his left shoulder, then brought it accurately 
down upon the ball. And he learned the cardinal rule— 
to keep the eye on the ball until the stroke is finished, 
and to consider the stroke unfinished till the club has 
followed the ball as far as possible without being let go. 
He learned, too, the importance of gripping the club right, 
of choosing the right stroke, and the right club for each 
stroke, of building not too high a pat of sand (or “ tee ”) 
to set the ball on, and of taking the right position (or 
11 stance ”) before it. 

He had an infinite patience, had History. He did not 
lose his temper, and he broke few clubs with wild strokes. 
At length his knack and his strength grew so that he got 
to knocking the ball so far on the “ drive ” that his weak 
eyes usually lost it ; and he understood that description 
of the game which says : u Fine game, golf ! First you 
hit the ball. Then, if you find it the same day you hit 
it— you win.” 

And now History began to try other clubs ; and though 
he did not place his reliance on having the full set of 
nineteen, he learned the need of seven, and these he got 
of the old Scot, who turned them for him from pure love 
of the cause, and who gave the boy the necessary iron clubs 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


261 


for the price of certain old school-books that History sold 
sorrowfully enough. 

He had to be his own “ caddie ” and carry his own bag 
of clubs at first, until a certain girl of the town— she who 
thought History the greatest man living— insisted upon 
wandering around the fields and carrying the clubs, like 
a papoose, for him. History’s reason for admiring the 
girl, by the way, was the fact that her first name was 
the high-sounding title Sophronisba (her last name it was 
Jones), and— oh, yes, he had one other reason for admiring 
her, and that was that she knew enough to admire him. 

Almost any day, then, one could see the pathetic little 
figure of History working out his golf salvation as tire- 
lessly and as solemnly as ever a penitent of the middle 
ages worked out his. He started early to school, and 
banged the golf-ball all the way, and after school he fol- 
lowed it all the way home. Soon the pedestrians of 
Lakerim learned that a new danger threatened their 
steps. It used to be that boys were pitching and batting 
base-balls across all the streets until the very horses 
almost learned to distinguish between a strike and a fair 
hit. Now the horses and the two-footed animals learned 
that when they heard a shrill voice crying “ Fore ! n it 
was time to jump for their lives and climb a tree, if pos- 
sible, before a golf-ball came zipping between their legs 
or past the tips of their noses. 

That fall, History was invited to spend a few days at 
the country club made famous forevermore by the great 
victories at tennis won by Pretty— who, it is high time 

15 


262 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


to tell, was soon np and about after bis sprained ankle 
bad laid aside its bandages. 

Now, it happened that the High Moguls of the great and 
glorious Tri-State Interscholastic League were to have 
their annual fall meeting at this same country club. 

The Lakerim athletes felt that, having defeated every 
member of the Interscholastic League in some game or 
other, at least once, they were fairly entitled to a member- 
ship in the League. While the Dozen had by no means 
won every game they had played, they had proved to the 
satisfaction of some of the members of the League that 
they were too important to leave out any longer. 

“For,” Tug argued, “the champion of the League can’t 
well call itself champion over three States when one 
of the States contains a high-school club that has wal- 
loped it.” 

But other members of the League felt that an academy 
was so much superior to a high school that a high school 
had no right to associate with an academy. These mem- 
bers were too strong to be voted down, and it looked very 
much as if the Dozen would have to continue a lonely 
career indefinitely. 

Yet the boys were so proud of the club-house, now 
almost completed, that they determined to make a hard 
fight to force their way into the League, and they planned 
to send delegates to the convention to make a powerful 
appeal for admission to membership. 

The contractors on the building, however, had demanded 
another payment, and the moneys of the treasury were so 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


263 


few and far between that the question of paying delegates’ 
expenses was a hard one to solve. 

At this moment History received his invitation to visit 
the country club ; and up spake Jumbo, saying : 

11 If we make History our delegate to the convention of 
the League we ’ll save ourselves from spending a lot of 
money we have n’t got $ and, besides, if History once gets 
the floor he ’ll talk them so deaf, dumb, and blind that 
they ’ll vote us into the League before they know what 
they ’re doing.” 

On these rather uncomplimentary grounds History was 
unanimously appointed a delegate— he called himself 
“ Envoy Extraordinary and Ambassador Plenipotentiary.” 

11 That ’s right,” sang out Sawed-Off ; “ just shake the 
dictionary through a coal-sieve, as the fellow said; and 
don’t let any little words creep into your speech, History, 
and they ’ll give you whatever you ask.” 


XVII 

4 ND so History went. And he found the convention 
assembled. And he got permission to make a speech 
after some difficulty. 

He had written his argument in a very fine hand on 
very many sheets of legal cap. When he rose to address 
the Tri-State Interscholastic League, he tucked the roll 
under his arm and wiped his spectacles on a handkerchief 
with a blue-and-gold border j as he did so he remarked 
with great importance : 

u Ahem ! ahum ! 77 

At these awful words, and at the sight of the roll of 
legal cap, the members of the League sat up straight and 
looked at one another in a scared sort of way, and wondered 
why they had chosen to meet in a second-story room with 
no fire-escape, and why they had allowed History to get 
between them and the door. 

History’s argument began at the year One, and followed 
the history of the world pretty closely down to date, 
bringing in telling allusions to Alexander the Great, 
Julius Caesar, and Themistocles— History called him 
u Themmy-stockles. 77 

By the time History was half-way through his speech, 
264 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


265 


most of the members that were in favor of admitting the 
Lakerim Dozen had gone comfortably to sleep,— it was 
warm and drowsy weather,— and the enemies of the Dozen 
were growing desperate. But all things human must 
have an end, and even History’s speech had a peroration. 
He finished it with a fine burst of eloquence that would 
have been more impressive if his voice had not cracked 
on the most important, beautiful word, and if he had not 
said “ pittomless hot,” when he meant “bottomless pit.” 
But History was satisfied that he had made a deep 
impression, and he went out of the room proud of his 
oratory, and blissfully ignorant of the fact that even the 
friends of the Lakerim cause had grown indignant that 
the Dozen had sent such a long-winded, long- worded dele- 
gate to torment the League. 

Out of the club-house History wandered, and, thinking 
that such a mental effort deserved some physical relaxa- 
tion, sent one of the club’s caddies after his golf-sticks, and 
went forth upon the links seeking whom he might per- 
suade to a game. 

At the very beginning of the links he found one of the 
best golfers in the club, a big, brawny athlete named 
Campbell. He was making a few practice shots, and was 
watched by a crowd of admirers, many of them good 
players whom he had defeated and who did not now dare 
to pit their skill against his. To him in his solitary 
grandeur little History came, as Jack the Giant-Killer to 
the ogre,* and him History challenged as a Lilliputian 
might have dared Gulliver to put up his dukes. 


266 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


The giant looked down at History and grinned, and 
looked at the crowd, and they grinned. Bnt this giant 
was, like almost all the giants I have ever met, a good- 
natured fellow, and it struck him that History was better 
than nobody at all to play with, and that perhaps he 
might teach History a few things that would be of value 
to him. So he accepted the boy’s challenge gracefully, 
and soon the game was on. 

Golf, as not everybody knows even at this day, when 
it has become one of the best-liked games in America, is 
played on a course, or “ links,” of irregular ground, with 
eighteen holes, each about four inches wide and six inches 
deep, placed at irregular distances upon it. The object 
of the game is to knock the ball successively into each of 
the holes in the fewest number of shots. It is a sort of 
magnificent croquet with holes instead of wickets and 
posts, and with those holes from one to four hundred yards 
apart, so that the ball moves a distance of three or four 
miles when most scientifically played, and many times that 
distance when “ duffers ” are playing. Like lawn-tennis, 
golf is looked upon as a lazy and silly game until it is 
once played, and thereafter it is likely to become a mania 
and to put mind and body to a severe test. 

Around each hole should be a smooth space of about 
twenty yards (called the “ putting-green ”) for careful 
strokes. Between some of the holes there are various 
obstacles, such as deep sand-pits, long grass, pools of water, 
and mounds like soldiers’ trenches. These are mean 
places to get the ball into and out of, and they are well 
called “ hazards.” 



HISTORY CHALLENGES CAMPBELL 



THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


269 


Before the first shot for each hole the ball is placed 
on a little mound of sand or earth, called the u tee,” so 
that it may be driven off with a good long swipe. After 
this it is struck from wherever it lies, and gradually driven 
to the putting-green about the next hole. Here the effort 
is to knock the ball into the hole for which it is intended. 
Once in a hole, the number of strokes is noted on a score- 
card, and the player walks to the next teeing ground ; a 
new tee is built, and the ball is placed on it and knocked 
toward the next hole. 

So now History’s opponent Campbell is patting into 
shape a little tee and placing his golf -ball gingerly upon 
it. And now he is standing alongside of the ball ; he is 
making a few preliminary waggles to prepare for an accu- 
rate shot. And now the club goes back with a great 
swing over his head and almost to his left shoulder, and 
then it comes swishing through the air, catching the ball 
squarely as the head of the club is on the rise, and send- 
ing it flashing through the air. But the stroke does not 
stop, as a base-ball batsman’s does, when it meets the 
ball; it follows on after it until the player is swung 
almost off his feet, and the club goes round and finishes 
the circle. 

It was a superb drive that Campbell had made, and 
there was a chorus of “ ahs ” and u ohs ” from the crowd 
that watched him. 

And now History is building the tee for his own golf- 
ball, and the crowd that was so consumed with admiration 
for Campbell has little interest in seeing the diminutive 


270 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


History make a “ foozle.” Some of them turn away, while 
the rest look on listlessly. But some of these are good 
enough players to note that History addresses the ball in 
surprisingly good form, that he also gives a long swing 
to his club and follows the stroke through. They note 
with surprise that, while there is not muscle enough back 
of the club to send the drive as far as Campbell’s, yet the 
ball has been struck neither with the heel nor with the toe 
of the “ driver,” but has been sent through on a bee-line 
for a fair distance. So they decide to follow, and see 
what the little shaver is good for, after all. 

The distance to the first hole was a long four hundred 
yards up hill and down, but Campbell brought himself 
finally a few yards from the level space of the putting- 
green in four shots. He made a good “ approach ” that 
landed the ball within two feet of the hole, and he was 
out, or “ down,” in six. 

History, though feebler in the biceps than Campbell, 
was right at his heels. He made a brilliant approach 
shot that landed him on the putting-green so comfortably 
close to the little cup that he u holed ” out in six, and halved 
the hole with Campbell. 

Campbell looked the picture of amazement as he 
stooped down to build a little tee of earth for his next 
drive. He was so surprised at being tied by the diminu- 
tive rival to whom he had intended to teach the game 
that he built his tee too big and miscalculated on his 
drive, so that, catching the ball too low, he sent it high up 
into the air, and the strong wind that was blowing across 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


271 


the links took it far out of its course and landed it in a 
sandy spot he had hoped to avoid. 

History, however, built his tee carefully and addressed 
the ball with great care before he struck it, and then took 
advantage of the breeze, and drove the ball slightly into 
the wind, so that it was rather a help than a hindrance. 

Campbell found his golf -ball snugly nestling in a little 
bunker of sand ; he made a bad effort to u loft ” it out, and 
succeeded in sending it only a few feet. 

On his second shot History also found himself bunkered, 
but he purposely struck the ground in front of the ball, and 
though the stroke tore up the sand, it caught the ball 
nicely on the center and drove it far and true. Campbell, 
however, was playing in hard luck, and when he finally 
reached the putting-green he missed the put, overplayed 
the hole, and had to spend a seventh stroke before he 
landed the ball in the cup. 

History, on the other hand, had made a businesslike 
approach and a cautious put, and was down in five. 

Having won this hole, History had the “ honor,” and 
made the first drive for the next. He played his strokes 
so that the ball was kept close to the ground and was 
hardly hampered by the wind. Campbell, however, was 
still so disconcerted at the unexpected good form of the 
pygmy from Lakerim that he failed to heed the warning 
of the wind, and made no accounting for its force in his 
long, high shots. 

On the third hole he was not down until the eighth shot, 
while History holed out in six. 


272 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


And now History was stampeded by his success, and 
his little heart was in such a flutter of ecstasy that he for- 
got his caution and his careful planning of every stroke, 
and smashed wildly $ but Campbell also had his troubles, 
and the fourth— an easy one, too— was halved in seven, 
when it should have been finished in five. 

And now Campbell braced himself with an effort, and 
on the fifth drive dealt the ball so mighty a blow that he 
was on the putting-green in two by a long stroke of his 
“brassie,” and he made the hole in four, while History, 
attempting to show how skilful he also was with the 
brassie, used it when an iron club was plainly the proper 
weapon, and he could not hole out before he had expended 
seven shots. 

Then Campbell’s strength got him into trouble in 
the next course, for though he had to play only a half- 
iron shot on the putting-green, he grew too zealous, and 
sent the ball whizzing across the grass right under the 
fence and out of bounds. Now he took a new ball and 
dropped it from behind him over his head, and this, with 
the penalty of one stroke, brought the new ball back to 
the putting-green and holed it out in seven. History, 
however, was still suffering from over-excitement, and 
found himself barely on the edge of the putting-green at 
his sixth shot. The only thing to save him would be a 
remarkable put that would land his golf -ball in the hole in 
one shot. He bethought him of a new style of putting, 
invented by an American— for you may be sure that no 
institution, serious or sporty, is so venerable or so highly 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


273 


finished that some American will not make some improve- 
ment in it. 

Once on the putting-green, every golf -player has a style 
of his own. Some use one hand, some use two; some 
stand in a soldierly attitude, some cower down over the 
ball like frogs ; some grasp the shaft of the club at the 
bottom, some at the top ; some use the club like a spoon, 
some like a whisk-broom ; some players do not use a golf- 
club at all, but a croquet-mallet or even a billiard-cue : 
anything and everything is tried that may wheedle the 
ball a short distance across the putting-green into the little 
tin cup of a hole. 

But the new method that History used was not in the 
choice of a new weapon, but in the manner of handling 
the old. He stood facing the hole squarely back of the 
wall ; the left hand rested on his hip, and the right hand 
held the club lightly. The ball was rapped smartly, not 
with the face of the club, but with the back of it, after a 
slight pendulum motion to and fro over it to get the exact 
line. With this method History could put the ball as 
accurately as if the turf were a green billiard-cloth and 
the club a cue. 

It was in these two things— the approach and the put 
—that History excelled. He was not exceptionally good 
at the drive, because he was too young to have acquired 
a very full swing, and in the approach shot a three-quar- 
ters swing is the one best used. On the approach shot 
his backward swing was indeed shorter than that of many 
a player, but after the ball was struck he followed it 


274 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


through with an unusually long swing, so that the ball 
was hit accurately, flew close to the ground, and stopped 
short. In the putting History’s delicacy and his caution 
were the causes of his success and saved him many an 
extra shot. He not only religiously obeyed the first com- 
mandment of golf, “ Keep your eye on the ball,” but, since 
he wore spectacles, he could be said to keep four eyes on 
the ball. 

History’s habit of reading constantly — at his meals, 
and on his way to school, always— had given him a great 
power of concentrating his mind, so that he hardly knew 
what went on about him. And now this stood him in 
good stead in golf, because, while Campbell was distracted 
by every movement of the restless caddie, and disturbed 
by the slightest whisper of inconsiderate onlookers, His- 
tory gave all his mind to the ball, and hardly knew that 
any one else existed on the earth. 

To describe a game of golf to readers that are not very 
familiar with it requires the use of almost as many strange, 
dark words as it would to deliver a lecture on the Greek 
language to an audience that did not know alpha from 
omega. So now I am afraid that the great game History 
played before these people, to whom he was as strange 
as one of Rip Van Winkle’s Catskill Mountain pygmies, 
cannot be described at length without talking a lot of 
gibberish that would only grow the more gibberish-ish 
the further I got. 

Therefore I will not say a word about the way he was 
trapped by a sand-bunker on his drive from the fifth tee 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


275 


and got out neatly with the niblick on the second shot, 
bowled over the second bunker beautifully with his mashie, 
and with a fine brassie laid the ball dead on the hole in 
three and holed out in four ; I will not mention the fact 
that Campbell, who relied on his strong drive and on his 
cuts, found the wind to be a worse rival than the stranger 
from Lakerim ; I will not tell you how on the eighth course 
his mashie shot overran on a down-hill lie, and how he 
made a brassie approach that went too far. 

I will not even insinuate that when Campbell did, as 
most golfers do, since the game is a Scotch game, insist 
on taking every advantage of the least little rule, and 
when he grew quarrelsome, History refused to quarrel, 
because he had been so long a member of the Lakerim 
Athletic Club that he was a true sportsman and preferred 
earning his points to having them given to him by some 
rule. And you will never know from me that, after 
Campbell stood out so strongly to gain a point by quar- 
reling over the rules, he met his just reward by losing the 
ball through a bad shot that sent it into a patch of long 
grass, where he could not find it until just five seconds 
after he had searched the five minutes the law allows ; so 
that he lost the hole, after all. 

You must live your life out— if you can— in eternal 
ignorance of this glorious game, and you must go about 
your business knowing nothing except that whenever 
History lost a point or two he made it up at once ; and 
that usually when he could not win he did not lose, but 
halved the hole, so that the game hung in the balance until 


276 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


the very last drive on the very last hole, the eighteenth, 
when History brought down the house, or rather brought 
down u all outdoors,” with a wonderful put in the Ameri- 
can method, that left Campbell, with his Scotch-English 
putting, in the lurch, and gave the delegate from the 
Dozen a lasting reputation at that country club. 

When History had won the game and the applause of 
the crowd, which had by now grown very large, he remem- 
bered that no answer had been given to the invitation 
which the Lakerim Athletic Club had given itself to join 
the Tri-State Interscholastic League. So he tore himself 
away from the crowd, without seeing the hands stretched 
out to shake his, and, thinking only of catching the train 
for Lakerim, ran to the club-house to learn what action 
had been taken on the all-important question. 


XVIII 


jL this time the town of Lakerim was in a great stew 



of excitement over the opening of the club-house of 
the Dozen 5 for the new home of the Twelve had put on its 
outside and inside coats and its hat, and was so nearly 
ready for business that it was decided to have a house- 
warming without any further delay. 

The club-house stood in all its beauty— and, modest as 
it was, it was a beauty, and it was all that such a house 
should be— the club-house stood in the corner of a great, 
square field that had been cleared and leveled and rolled 
and mapped out to accommodate all of the outdoor games 
that the Twelve might want to practise out of doors. The 
map of the field will show you better than I can tell you 
how the running-track was made to fill all the available 
space, leaving inside it room for a base-ball diamond at 
one end and a foot-ball field at the other, with one cozy 
grand stand that served for both ; how two perfect tennis- 
courts were tucked into one corner left vacant by the oval- 
shaped track, and how a little boat-house fronted on the 
lake in the other corner, so that the club was indeed a 
Lakerim club. 


277 


278 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


It would take an architect to tell you how Sawed-OfiPs 
father had designed the club-house so that it should con- 
tain the greatest possible room and convenience at the 
least possible cost. The basement was given over to 
bowling-alleys and bath-rooms and lockers, with space 



between them for a bricked and netted court to practise 
tennis or base-ball or basket-ball in the winter. And there 
was at one end a long, narrow pool of water, in which the 
men could swim, or the boat crew practise when the club 
had earned money enough to pay for a stationary boat. 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


279 


The first floor was devoted to a gymnasium, not very 
liberally equipped, but yet with chest- weights and rowing- 
machines and ladders and stationary bicycles and hori- 
zontal bars and trapezes, Indian clubs of all sizes and 
dumb-bells of all weights, fencing-foils, single sticks, and 
boxing-gloves to reach every muscle in every body. 

The front of this floor and the next were given over to 
reading-rooms, rooms for checkers and chess and all that 
tribe of games, and to rooms where the club or its commit- 
tees could meet to debate any of the solemn problems 
that might come up before it. Up-stairs was a gallery 
with a running-track tilted at the ends, and padded. 

The club-house was, in fact, an ideal home for an ideal 
club of boys who were not altogether ideal themselves, per- 
haps, and yet were very decent fellows and thorough sports- 
men, who had learned in a year of association with one 
another and a year of contests with rivals at least these four 
virtues, which are, after all, not so common as they might 
well be : 


To do zealously and with all power of mind and body 
whatever task comes to hand or can be found by search. 

To dare much and yet be cautious and thoroughly 
honest withal. 

To take victory modestly and defeat pluckily, deter- 
mined to improve every success and to repeat no mis- 
take. 

And, above all, to be a true sportsman, not a cry- 
baby or a sneak. 


16 


280 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


The event of the house-warming found the club-house 
lighted up inside from basement to roof, and festooned 
outside with Japanese lanterns and bicycle-lamps. All 
the Twelve except History were there with their best 
girls ) and History was represented by Miss Sophronisba 
Jones. Besides, there were such new members as the 
Twelve had found it necessary and desirable to take into 
the club to share its advantages— and its expenses. There 
were also the fathers and mothers of such boys as had 
fathers and mothers, and, in short, all the best people of 
all ages in the town. The ceremonies were to open with 
a grand march to be led by the president, to the music of 
the village band, employed at great expense. The band 
was instructed to strike up Mr. Sousa's u The Stars and 
Stripes Forever ! " exactly at eight o'clock ; and the village 
players were just filling their cheeks with wind enough 
to blow the brass trombones and trumpets inside out 
when they were ordered to postpone the struggle by the 
president of the club, who had just left a little crowd 
where eleven of the Dozen were anxiously discussing 
History's delay. 

Sleepy had suggested that the train was probably late. 
But B. J. had whispered excitedly : 

“ Perhaps it has been held up by train-robbers." 

But Jumbo had grunted: 

“I'll bet History has n't finished making that speech yet.” 

But Sawed-Off had said : 

“I '11 bet they won't let him make it, and he has choked 
to death on some of those big words." 

But Reddy and Heady broke out as one : 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


281 


u Maybe they voted not to let us in—” 

“ And,” Tug went on for them, “he ? s ashamed to come 
back.” 

“ Or else,” suggested Bobbles, “ he does n’t want to put 
a damper on our celebration.” 

The Dozen were worried, and the Dozen were growing 
blue, and the Dozen began to feel that the club-house and 
the club and all the things they had been working for so 
hard for a whole year were n’t worth it, after all, if they 
failed to get into the League. 

“ I guess I will postpone the march awhile longer,” said 
Tug, sadly. 

So they waited and waited, and chewed their handker- 
chiefs, and worked at their unusually high collars, and 
looked ashamed and embarrassed, and kept away from 
their friends. 

Nothing, not even the measles, is so catching as a feeling 
of uneasiness once let loose in a large and happy crowd. 
And soon the guests began to feel that something was 
wrong, and to whisper together and feel uncomfortable. 

When the discomfort had grown almost unendurable, 
and the talk had died out, and everybody was simply 
waiting, there was a clatter of hurrying feet on the walk 
outside, and then on the steps to the club-house, and lo ! 
the long-expected History appeared at the door. 

He gave just one wild look at the crowd, and then 
dropped to the ground and began fumbling about the 
floor. As usual, he had lost his spectacles ! 

But the Dozen made a dash for him, and refused to let 
him stop and hunt for them, and hustled him through the 


282 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


crowd, belaboring him witb questions like stuffed clubs. 
History, however, answered never a word until he reached 
a clear space in the floor. Then he faced about and began, 
as all good orators do, at the beginning. 

“ Gentlemen of the Lakerim Athletic Club, and Kind 
Friends : When, in the course of human events — ” 

Here Quiz broke out : “Do we get in ? ” 

This embarrassed History so that he skipped three pages 
in the oration he had written down on the train, and he 
went on : 

“Secondly, a careful study of the world’s history—” 

“ Do we get in?” shouted Quiz and Jumbo. 

And again History’s speech slipped several cogs. 

“ The well-known philosopher Socrates said—” 

“Hang Socrates! what did the League say?” cried 
Quiz and Jumbo and the Twins. 

And now History was compelled to rebuke them with 
a request that they wait until he got to that point. But 
the whole Dozen sang out : 

“ Tell us now, and finish your speech afterward ! ” 

History gave a little groan of annoyance and remarked 
carelessly : 

“ They said they guessed they ’d have to let us in.” 

But now that he had let the cat out of the bag, when 
he tried to go on with his speech, what he said was 
drowned in the wild uproar of delight of the eleven and 
their friends ; and the band struck up the long-lost music, 
and the grand march began. 

First came Tug, arm in arm with Mr. Mills, the young 




































































« 






































THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


285 


lawyer, whose services had surely entitled him to this honor. 
After him followed Jumbo, with Carrie Shields in tow ; and 
then Pretty, with Enid at his side, both very fine to look 
upon. Then came Quiz, escorting Cecily Brown, and asking 
her whether the club-house was n’t “ simply great.” And 
next was Bobbles, with the girl Betsy, after whom he had 
named his famous sled. And then came B. J., with a 
freckle-faced little girl whom he usually thought of as a 
princess carried away by a band of Indians, and whom he 
frequently rescued, single-handed and with great slaugh- 
ter— in his imagination. Then Sleepy appeared, dragged 
along by the lively girl who stood next to base-ball in his 
heart. After them came Reddy and Heady, one on either 
side of the same girl j they had quarreled over her until, 
to avoid a scene, she had decided to go with both. 

History was about to be left out of the parade in his 
solemn determination to finish his speech j but when 
Sophronisba Jones realized that she was the only one in 
all the crowd that was listening to the pearls of thought 
he was offering, she grabbed him by the arm and hurried 
him into line just before the rest of the people paired off 
and followed in the wake of the Dozen. 

So they went, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, 
sisters, cousins, and aunts, new members and all $ and they 
marched up-stairs and down-stairs and through all the 
rooms, and in a long string around the running-track. The 
hearts of the Dozen were beating like tenor drums with 
delight j and the band was playing as it had never played 
before. Why, it kept on the key almost half the time ! 


286 


THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB 


When the triumphal procession had thus marched all 
about the club-house, the crowd gathered on the main 
gymnasium floor to hear a lot of speeches and see a lot of 
wonderful gymnastic feats by the Dozen, and to perform 
some wonderful feats itself in the stowing away of ice- 
cream and cakes, not to mention lemonade. 

Then the Dozen got together in the center of the floor, 
and gave three cheers for everything they could think of. 

And ended the old year and began the new with a great 
and glorious club cheer that roared up to a grand climax 
and broke out like a sky-rocket : 

“Lay-krfm! 

Lay- 

krfrn ! 

Lay- 

krim ! 





! ! ! 



£20 


GOAL 
















w : 

^ 'tc * 

v * ' * 0 / > ,o 

« . *■& 

V 



. A * % <Cr ^O, ' * \ 0 

^ ul» ^ C^<»» »/a N V ' 

> .O' . S s ^ r /, C> 

■& 

/ C s ' \ O * 0 * K ” .o' ^ '' i 

1 & * N • \ \ I R . •/• *S rt vf ,- . y*^ ’ $ Or 

,*V^ °o 0 ° .'. ... *' V ^ • 

v\ s £?(i X/^l, ^ ^ T , ^Bt / -^’ J . ^ *£* 

<y ., . a x , 0 - £>\, <y . 

81 O^ s ^ ^ ^ 9 N 






0 e> 



£ 


V* ** * . * ^r'y / yJW >s r , 

\ i \ j r. ‘ / " y ^' . ^ cl* ^ ■ ' \ Cl ^ 

J> s . . , =V * o N O ’ \<’ e-_ '.|1* A , , . , °-l, » ') N 

A° Oiy. '', CV V »'*«A > ,A.' .A" C '~ 

If * *#&&* '. +<? .4, * « » *- ' ^ 

:i ' '■•• .A' 



V 

4 reiPV ***%. vreLi % \La?L* .re 

y «* 46 <* " y . s ^ A , ^ / o^jk' i * ^ 0 V 

* 0- .0^ C° N S t, A^ X * v 1 8 * ^O 

o V s 



W 


o> *vL> v 
V 5 * 


o cr 



V * o 


,0 o. * '0SJ^ 3? V * 4 > 

* ** tret-.: * xC > ^ rf. 

-'• /V 

' .<*;■ >iw, ' 'P^ r f<: 4 * 

,'\ * ,f* —-. ’'fc a {$> * /A v,. <0. r '>^ 

gj * r* *? ? 4f? ^ ' AN ** " - ° 




; • A? : > 

\\‘ A ^ i‘ ^ 'A\ - » C. y^"' 

.VV ,y> s u// .v\A \VJ . A * 3 <S- 

•-V V, .. “1 ',v * V* ^ 

, c^’ ft '•ii y -I 0L V 

N , \ ^ -A A » 

A' 



% V 




V » 8 


'» -a .a ; ‘ ^ ^siy^ s 

'?/. 7 « * s * 4 ^ K , <L v 7 » a s s A V , H 

o° ^ x 

o A%, ' >■' ,V J /; x 0c L. : 

y l»sv 5 > \v* Arf- rf. /yr s r 

Ci_ y ft A’ 6k. O O 0 CA > 

| v ^ * 8 , V* ^4° °* * 


' .0-' '■o, A 

O - ^ s^*'* A •"° 



T- A ,0. .<4 C < 

'■). - % 4' -■ 

; z: < ^ 


4°' .s'* ,°'l c * * -* 0 ’ 


4 .# 


- 1 L 

%. ~ 4 0* \* 4° V n s r <L * ft s S \\ X 

°o c 0 ^- 1 ' ^ ^ 


\ 0 ^ * 


o> 'cf' - rVA^ 1 # -V <> A<> ^ -»k HW^AN.- ~ o> '^- ~<^'Y// 

\ V %<- ^ ,y-,r v y TftkVl .:- > \V- *V£. C<- A-) 

> v ... ,.,V=L“ / ,.. V ; L 

L ;. v^ ° ^ ^ re 1 l 4 ^ ^ < v « ^>.re. 4 ° L> 

- ' * \. n z ■'. vrefc.^ „ y >, - ^ rei- i z .\, 


A * 


v> 


->■ 





o N c 


<re v,-.re 




<>L v 
<0 Os' 


,0O 



A \ « l 1 * * 

A A '' 

S : A ^ : s 


C* ^ ^ 

^ 0 M 0 ^ ^ <y n , \ 

,A A, 4' "- 

v _yyra«.. y « . r « •> * 



%-..■»•■•'* J > \,^, 

^ a. * ana *, ^ 



.>. <A 

re a' 




